RWBY: Bloody Snow: Volume 2
by Spat915
Summary: Christmas was nice... until Nora was kidnapped. Now teams RWBY and JNPR find themselves in the middle of a plot that has been two decades in the making. This is part two of a three part story. Volume 1 on this site at /s/10558972/. Warning: this volume deals with darker themes than volume 1. Reader discretion is advised. Cover by LovelyLittleRose.
1. PROJECT GRIMM SPHERE: Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

 **First, for all of you coming into this series for the first time, I will suggest Bloody Snow Volume 1 to start with since this story is intended to be read in series. As a quick link, the story is on this site at /s/10558972**

 **Next, I own absolutely nothing to do with RWBY and I thank Roosterteeth and Monty Oum (Rest in Peace) for creating a series that has captured my imagination enough to allow the creation of this story.**

 **Finally, I welcome you all to RWBY: Bloody Snow: Volume 2! Please Enjoy!**

* * *

Weiss awoke to the sound of yelling in the hall. As she started to get up, warm arms wrapped themselves around her, pulling her backwards under the light cover. She felt Ruby's breathing as she was held not too tight, but enough so she couldn't get away. She smiled and dismissed the ruckus in the hall as just one of the usual early morning disturbances that were common at Beacon.

The noises retreated, leaving comfortable silence in its wake. She heard no sound except their breathing and her own heartbeat as she lay in Ruby's arms, closing her eyes as the warmth called her back to her wonderful dream. She liked how Ruby was always so warm that even in the middle of the winter with the lightest sheet, she felt warm like lying in the sun on a nice summer day.

Sometime later, possibly after she'd dozed off, the noise returned, growing steadily louder until two loud bangs echoed around their room. Weiss was quick to react, yanking the blanket up to cover herself and Ruby just as the door flew open, slamming into the wall only to bounce back and stop when it met Ren's hand.

Behind him Jaune, Yang, Blake, and Pyrrha looked a little frantic with varying degrees of disheveledness that said they'd been woken rather abruptly as well.

Ren stood in the doorway. His fist closed around a scroll that Weiss could tell was Nora's as she'd painted it pink. His eyes were wild and it was obvious he was panicking. "Nora's missing."

Everyone was quiet for a moment, Weiss snapping out of her sleep to the situation before her. She was about to tell everyone what to do when Ruby popped her head out from under the covers. Her hair was stuck to the corner of her mouth and she brushed it away, looking at all the people staring into their room.

Pyrrha pushed Jaune out of view of the room and Yang grabbed Ren by the collar, dragging him away as he protested. "Nora's missing, we have to do something quick!"

"What do you expect them to do without clothes, moron?" Yang responded just as Blake shut the door.

"Good morning Weiss." Ruby said happily, her voice cracking from her dry throat.

"Morning, Ruby." Weiss replied, dropping the blanket and wrapping an arm around her girlfriend.

"I sort of wish we could just stay in bed for today." Ruby said sadly. Her arms tightened around Weiss for a second before she released her.

"I do too." Weiss admitted as she got up and started for the washroom. "But we have to find Nora first. Heaven knows where that girl has gotten to."

"Can we shower together?" Ruby asked, amazed at how unembarrassed she felt to ask now that they'd experienced each others bodies more fully than she'd ever admit she had dreamed about.

"Good idea. It'll save time." Weiss nodded walking into the other room as Ruby jumped up and followed close behind her.

"We'll have the day to ourselves after we find Nora, right?" Ruby asked like a kid asking for candy at the store.

Weiss smiled as she pulled Ruby into a kiss that didn't last long enough. "Ruby, I promise we can have all the days to ourselves."

Weiss twisted the tap on the shower and got the water nice and hot before stepping in. Ruby followed hesitantly, her shyness returning full force all of a sudden.

"Turn around and I'll do your back." Weiss said as she poured shower gel into her hand and got it to foam up. "Then you can help me with mine."

Ruby nodded, more to set her resolve than to acknowledge Weiss. She knew she'd been working towards this point of their relationship for a long time, but it was so entirely different that she seemed to be making a bigger deal of it than it was. _I'll just have to try harder to get used to this._ She thought as she turned and let Weiss massage the soap into her skin.

After the shower, Ruby and Weiss met Ren and company in the common room a floor below their room. Yang was talking to Ren as he shook his head continuously and noticing the arrival of their hostess and her team leader, Pyrrha approached glancing over at Ren's back. Jaune was talking to Claude who looked like he'd seen a ghost.

"Hey, Jaune is asking Claude questions. He mentioned something called project Grimm sphere, and now he won't say a word." Pyrrha informed Weiss and Ruby in a whisper. She glanced over her shoulder at Ren and turned back with a sigh. "Ren's freaking out a little bit. I think he blames himself for Nora's disappearance."

"Thanks." Weiss nodded before she raised her voice for everyone in the room to hear. "Okay. So I have a plan."

She paused to look at Jaune for the go ahead, which he gave with a nod as he turned to pay attention. The rest of the room fell silent, even Ren was paying his fullest attention to Weiss. She felt a wave of adrenaline rush through her as she settled into her natural element.

"This whole place is under 24 hour surveillance from a closed circuit security camera system. All we have to do is follow Nora from her last known location and we'll be able to find her." Weiss looked to Claude specifically for the next part. "And you will give me any information you have on project Grimm sphere, especially any parts that may include my friends."

Claude hung his head. "I am not permitted to do that, Miss Schnee."

"I am not asking. You will give me the information I want or I will obtain it myself." Weiss said quickly before returning to the rest of her friends. "The security office is in the next tower. Follow me."

Weiss set off with Ruby and Ren close behind. Everyone else followed them as Weiss walked almost imperiously through the halls and down the flight of stairs and up the flight leading to the adjacent tower. The group was once again surprised by their surroundings as Weiss walked straight up to the head of security who was sitting at his desk looking over some papers.

"I am using the main computer. Don't disturb me." Weiss walked straight passed the somewhat startled man who's arms were easily Weiss's shoulder width. It was obvious he was afraid of the young girl and he watched the group uneasily as they followed Weiss into the room behind him.

"Welcome. Weiss Schnee. Claude Lawrence. Identified six unknown subjects. Please identify." The room spoke through speakers as large guns came out of the walls, floor and ceiling, all rotating to aim at the group that had just entered.

"Just say your name." Weiss told everyone who seemed very nervous at the firepower aimed at them.

"Ruby Rose" Ruby said in her high pitched voice as she trembled nervously in front of the hundred guns that looked to be of a higher caliber than Crescent Rose.

"Identified. Ruby Rose. Verify." The room responded without missing a beat.

"Guest" Weiss said loudly to the room.

"Weiss Schnee. Administrator. Verified. Identified unknown subject four, Ruby Rose. Guest. Identified five unknown subjects. Please identify."

The process continued until all the remaining students identified themselves and Weiss verified their identification. "Weiss Schnee. Administrator. Verified. Identified unknown subject two, Blake Belladonna. Faunus. Guest. Identification complete. Welcome to White Castle Central Security monitoring station 4F."

The guns disappeared back into their hiding spots and Weiss waved for everyone to follow her as she went up to the front of the room and pulled up the outside camera facing the plane as they got off. Her fingers whizzed over the keyboard in front of her as she reached up and swiped the image off onto another screen and then pulled up the video of the party the previous night. Weiss set the computer to automatically fast forward as she and everyone else watched Nora and Ren dance together before Nora literally pulled Ren back to their room. They watched the door as the light in the hall changed from night to day. Then they watched as Nora ran from the room, skipping comically fast as she headed down the stairs and into the labyrinth of halls. Suddenly, there was a flash of black around Nora and then a message popped up saying the target was lost.

Weiss rewound the tape to the part just before the message appeared and found the screen flash black to a missing data message. Though she'd learned how to use the system as part of her homeschooling, she'd never encountered missing data. Her fingers hesitated over the keys as her mind refused to giver her anything useful to solve the problem.

"Would you mind letting me try?" Jaune asked as he stepped up behind Weiss.

"How would you know how to work this?" Weiss asked in response.

"Well… I didn't really get into Beacon with my fighting skills." Jaune said nervously as he felt Pyrrha's eyes on his back.

"Fine. Give it a try." Weiss sighed, stepping back. "Promote Jaune Arc, temporary administrator."

"Acknowledged. Jaune Arc is now Administrator." The system announced as Jaune stepped up to the keyboard Weiss had used.

"Now this is on a legacy server, so there should be a division between data and the pointers the system uses." Jaune explained as black boxes with white scrolling text appeared over the missing data screen.

"So…" Ruby asked, interested in learning something new about her fellow team leader.

"Whenever something is deleted, the pointer to the data is reset. The data stays until hard drive space runs out and then the system reclaims the data that's been deleted as free space. Until then, everything is still there." Jaune explained as he pressed one last key and a progress bar popped up. He stepped back from the keyboard and nodded to Weiss. "All I had to do was tell the system it still exists."

The missing data screen flashed out of existence to be replaced by an empty hallway.

"Thank you Jaune." Weiss said as she took her place to view the recovered footage.

Everyone was tense as Weiss rewound the tape slowly enough to see black shapes fly back across the hall. Once Nora was back to skipping, Weiss pressed the play button. The group watched as Nora stopped and looked to the right side of the hall and a black figure came flying toward her, his fist connecting with Nora's jaw. In the next instant, Nora fell limp and a second black figure from the other side of the hall came into view. He bound Nora's arms and legs before putting her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry as the other man pulled out his scroll and sent a message.

The two men walked to the right and disappeared. When Weiss tried to bring up the other camera, a small pop-up came instead saying that the footage was corrupt and unreadable. Weiss looked back at Jaune who shook his head. She swore loudly, surprising everyone around her. Weiss might not know much about computers, but she knew that data loss in the Schnee Corp servers was definitely an inside job.

"Sorry, that's all I can do." Weiss told Ren. Her voice was sad and pensive as her brain worked in overdrive. Weiss quickly pulled up the administrator project directory and switched the user to her father. Weiss knew he never changed his passwords and she'd hacked into his account by guessing his password ages before she knew that it would be useful to have access to the information.

"I cannot believe that you would break into your father's account!" Claude exclaimed, shocked at Weiss's actions within the system.

"Let's call it supervising." Weiss replied as she pulled up a list of ongoing projects and scrolled down to the g's. "Now would be a good time to give me the short version of Grimm Sphere." Weiss paused as her cursor highlighted the project that had a large red lock symbol beside it.

"I'm sorry." Claude apologized, his head sinking as he looked at the ground. Weiss didn't grace him with a response, and pulled up the file that was password protected.

"Perfect." Weiss said sarcastically to the group as she took a step back from the controls. "I have no clue what the password might be."

"Then allow me." Jaune said, stepping up beside Weiss. He pulled up a window with millions of tiny lines of code shifting over it. Over the next five minutes, he managed to break the encoding and decipher the file. What everyone read shocked even Weiss, who was expecting some type of gruesome dust experiment.

Weiss stared at the notes on the project before reading out the most important ones. "Dust experimentation in order to control the creatures of Grimm… Lead researcher, Roman Torchwick… Authorized capture of test subjects." Weiss fell silent at the last note.

Ruby, however, couldn't help but finish. "Optimal test subject found at Beacon… Nora Valkyrie."

"What does this mean?" Ren asked, his voice deadly quiet in the shocked silence. "Why is Torchwick working for Schnee Corp?"

Weiss shook her head, looking at the notes. She couldn't believe that her father had hired the criminal that had almost killed her teammate, but she realized he probably didn't know or care. As long as it was cost effective. "I don't know."

Ruby gave Ren a look and he started to turn away from the bank of monitors that everyone was watching. Weiss stepped up from where Jaune had just stepped away and pulled up a location map that surprised her more than anything. As everyone looked, trying to figure out what they were looking at a map of, Weiss turned to Claude.

"Get our stuff packed and on the plane. We're leaving before nightfall." Weiss ordered, casting a nervous glance at Ruby. Ren turned back to the monitor, his brain finally snapping into focus.

"Where are we going?" He asked quietly.

"We're returning to Beacon." Weiss replied as she tried to think of a better plan than she had.

"After we find Nora." Ruby added, noticing that Weiss was off in her own thoughts.

Weiss nodded, realizing that everyone except Ruby would be shocked by her plan that she realized was the only way that they'd be able to get Nora out of her father's and Torchwick's clutches alive.

"So here's the plan." Weiss looked at Jaune then Pyrrha, then Ren, Blake, Yang and finally Ruby before she let out her held breath and continued. "We're going to the basement to get Nora. But only a small team will work out effectively."

"I'm going." Ren said, his voice indicating he'd take no argument. Weiss nodded at him briefly.

"Ruby and I will go too. The rest of you should make sure all our stuff is on the plane, then wait there for us." Weiss swallowed at the memory of a threat her father had spoken to her many years ago. "If we don't come back by five in the evening, I want you to leave without us."

"We can't do that!" Jaune objected. Pyrrha nodded in agreement with him.

"Yeah, I'm not leaving Ruby!" Yang almost shouted.

Weiss let out a frustrated sigh. "If we're not back by five, we're not coming back. Ever." She ran through all the defensive weapons concealed in all the high security areas of the castle and hoped against hope that she wasn't leading her friends and the love of her life to slaughter.

Everyone was silent, digesting Weiss's statement. Finally, Ren broke the silence. "Get the plane ready. We're all going to need to get out of here fast if things are as bad as Weiss thinks they are."

Jaune nodded and left the room to get started on the packing. Pyrrha gave Ruby a hug and offered her hand to Weiss who took it and pulled her into a hug, surprising Pyrrha at the sudden change in behavior. Blake and Pyrrha left together, Blake looking back at Weiss and nodding before she disappeared through the door.

"I want you to promise me you won't do anything stupid." Yang said to Ruby, her big sister mode kicking in as she leaned down to meet Ruby's eyes at her level.

"I promise." Ruby said as Yang squeezed her in one of her typical bear hugs. "I'll be there at five."

"And you! You better come back too because I am not going to forgive you if you make Ruby cry!" Yang poked Weiss hard in the chest, her face dead serious. "And you don't want to get me mad."

"I'd never hurt Ruby." Weiss responded as if she was restating common knowledge. "And that means the two of us are regrettably stuck together in a dorm till the end of the year."

"Good. Just remember that you're not allowed to be fashionably late, so give 'em hell and get your ass to the plane!" Yang said before she walked away, leaving the team of three together.

"Best be off then." Weiss said, taking a deep breath and grabbing Ruby's hand.

Ruby gave her a quick squeeze before she twisted their fingers together, letting Weiss lead as they started on their long walk to the basement of the castle.

As they went down staircase after staircase, the castle around them that was always full of wide, branching hallways made of white marble, changed to narrow hallways with one exit on each end made of black marble and occasionally featured arches around the doorways that were made of granite.

"How far do we still have to go?" Ruby asked Weiss quietly as she continued to grip her hand. Weiss could tell Ruby was nervous from her sweating and her tendency to reach her dominant hand to her weapon.

"Not far. The area we want should be around this corner." Weiss said as she lead them around the corner to come face to face with a security guard.

He visibly stiffened as Weiss approached him, the large gun in his arms aimed almost at them but still off enough to show he wasn't going to shoot, yet.

"This area is off limits. Please leave." He announced, his voice was thick and gravelly as he watched the group in front of him stop.

Weiss had already instructed Ren to do nothing until Weiss told him to and he'd reluctantly agreed. Weiss already knew Ruby's fight style would only prove useful with crowd control and hoped she'd know that this one guard would be for Weiss to take care of.

"Why would an area of my castle be off limits to me?" Weiss feigned confusion as she looked at the guard. "You do know who I am, don't you?"

The guard swallowed hard enough for the group to hear the gulping sound before responding. "I'm sorry, Miss Schnee, but your father has forbidden you or anyone else to venture past this point."

Weiss seemed to think for a minute before she continued. She slowly walked up to the guard as he readjusted the grip on his gun. "You see, I've been looking around and taking the names of staff I've run into that were doing their jobs well." She walked around his side as he kept facing toward the other two people he saw as the majority of the threat. "I believe that you are doing a good job, not letting us go past here. It would be a shame if one of Schnee Corp's big secrets accidentally got out." The guard nodded and Weiss noticed the sheen of sweat gracing his forehead. _He's nervous. Perfect._ "What's your name?"

She ran a hand along his shoulder as she walked directly behind him and came around to his other side. "J-James Dixon." He stuttered as Weiss's hand trailed down the side of his neck.

"Very good, Mr. Dixon." Weiss said with a smile before she pinched a nerve in his neck, knocking him out instantly. He fell backward and Weiss jumped out of the way of getting crushed.

"Nice one." Ren nodded as he and Ruby stepped over the guards body. Weiss reached into her pocket and took a small crystal from her pocket and placed it inside the barrel of his gun. Ruby gave her a questioning look that Weiss simply ignored before continuing through the door he'd been guarding.

* * *

 **End Note:**

 **This time around, I am going to try my best to eliminate one of the notes from each chapter, so this is where I advise you that this volume is rated M for intense violence and scenes making reference to or containing sexual content, among other less frequent adult themes. Consider yourself warned if I don't have a note at the beginning of one of those chapters.**

 **If you have feedback on this or any other chapter, please don't hesitate to write a review or send me a PM. I only ask that you keep any criticism constructive for the sake of improving future chapters. In the words of my favourite character: " _I'm not perfect... not yet._ "**

 **And as always, I thank you for reading and I will be attempting to publish a new chapter every Monday or Tuesday.**


	2. PROJECT GRIMM SPHERE: Chapter 2

Ozpin looked down at his scroll as a message flashed onto the screen. He frowned as he looked at the contents stating that a student had been pulled from the new semester. He looked at the notes scattered around his desk and pulled a small booklet labelled with the student's last name towards him.

He flicked through and found his lists of family, friends, classmates, teammates, and which people were to be watched around the individual. At the end of the booklet was the file number on his scroll. He quickly opened the corresponding file and flicked through it, searching for any answer that might describe the sudden droppout.

Excellent grades, close circle of friends, extremely sociable, and overall liked by others. Nothing to indicate reason for a droppout. As he kept reading, he found mentions of a childhood friend turned romantic interest. He supposed that a very hostile falling out could have resulted, but due to the personality of the subjects, he decided it was highly unlikely to be the cause.

"Glynda?" He spoke out the open door into the room beyond. A moment later, Glynda Goodwitch appeared at the door, a frown on her face as she finished reading a piece of paper.

"Yes, Sir?" She asked, taking in the mess of notes on his desk.

A beep sounded from Ozpin's scroll and he held up a finger as he pressed the answer button. "Hello."

"Uh, hi, um, sir? It's Jaune, from team JNPR." Jaune said cautiously from the other side of the audio line.

"Hello Jaune, to what do I owe this unexpected call?" Ozpin asked as he continued to look over Nora's file.

"It's about my team, and team RWBY."

"I see, would you care to explain further?" Ozpin asked, his interest piqued.

"Well, Nora went missing this morning. We're at White Castle by the way." Jaune started, not really knowing how much the headmaster already knew.

"Yes, I believe I have been informed of your locations." Ozpin said, keeping his statements general.

"Anyway, Weiss found out something and took Ren and Ruby with her. She said it was important that we leave if they don't return to the plane by five o' clock tonight. We're worried and wanted to ask what you thought about all this."

"Hmm…" Ozpin's brain was working in overdrive. He suddenly knew that the message he'd been sent was an excellent forgery. _Most people would have to pay for something this good. RWBY and JNPR are at White Castle. Meaning that whoever sent this message has a connection to Schnee Corp and is confident enough not to be caught._

"Um, sir?" Jaune asked into the silence.

"I appologize, I was just finishing up some paperwork. I would advise you follow Miss Schnee's advice for the time being and keep me posted with any… unusual developments." Ozpin responded.

"Okay, I'll let you know if anything changes." Jaune said before he ended the conversation.

"Glynda? May I ask you to contact Qrow on my behalf?" Ozpin opened his contact list and scrolled down to the s's.

"Of course." Glynda nodded, waiting for the message.

"Tell him that the research is moving forward too quickly." Ozpin replied as he pressed the name of the person he wanted to talk to on his scroll.

"Understood." She left the office, closing the door behind her.

"Hello?" A man's voice answered from the other end of the call.

"Hello, Mr. Schnee. This is Professor Ozpin. Headmaster of Beacon Academy in Vale, the school your daughter Weiss currently attends." Ozpin said to the silence. "It has come to my attention that your business is endangering my students without want or need."

"You understand that I am not responsible for-" Mr. Schnee started the normal legal response he'd obviously said many times before.

"I understand completely, however you may find that while my students are on your property and under your authority, any harm that comes to them is your responsibilty." Ozpin cut the business man off, he needed to get this done quickly before Qrow contacted him back.

"By entering my estate, all of your students have agreed that I am not responsible for any… missteps they may make. I now have a meeting to get to. Good day." The scroll made an audible click and the line went dead.

Ozpin thought carefully as he readjusted his glasses. _They are moving ahead much faster than I had thought._ His scroll started to beep and he answered the call.

"Ozpin." A man's voice that was both gruff and friendly came out of the speakers. "To what do I owe this unexpected call."

"Unfortunately, the Corporation is moving ahead with its plans faster than I'd originally thought." Ozpin informed him, his voice grave as he played a mental game of chess, trying to find the right move to make next.

"Do you think we should inform them of what is happening?" Qrow asked, his voice all business.

"I think it would be unwize to do so at this point…" Ozpin sighed. "They are still children after all."

"Children or not, they are the next generation to take the mantle once we become too old and decrepid to handle it." Qrow argued. The conversation had already become a rhythm between the two over the past decade as they had observed the best and worst candidates to create a solution to the inevitable problem.

"That they are. But you do realize that if we tell them, it'll terrify them more than anything else in this world?" Ozpin asked, breaking the age old rhythm.

"Courage isn't based on lack of fear, but the ability to overcome it and fight when the time is right." Qrow replied philisophically. Ozpin had to admire his ability to use such broad concepts and look at everything as if it was either black or white.

"The only question is: will they be able to?"

"I spent years training Ruby. I have great faith that despite her age, she'll step up to protect what she holds dear."

Ozpin nodded to himself, solidifying his resolve. "I know that her team will back her up unquestioningly. But for the time being, it may be best to watch how things play themselves out."

"I'll leave the final say in this decision to you. We shouldn't be hasty with this like we were last time." Qrow fell silent and Ozpin didn't respond as the two remembered their last attempt at making the same decision.

"I often wonder if we're doing the right thing." Ozpin mused more to himself than to Qrow.

"I do not think there is an option for right in this scenario. We just have to choose what is less wrong."

The click of Qrow hanging up left the room in silence. Ozpin breathed slowly, as he sorted his priorities. He stood up and walked to open his door. He looked down the hall, away from all the work he had left to do in his office.

"Glynda, call a taxi for one in the morning. I'll be meeting a few students at the Vale airport."

"Of course sir." Came the voice of his assistant before he turned and sat back at his desk. He started sorting through his notes again as if he had not been disturbed. _I only hope that we will find a better set of options than we have now…_

* * *

"What are you doing?" Ruby asked, watching Weiss fiddle with her scroll as they continued down the long spiral ramp that slowly descended in a wide circle with a glowing crystal towering through the middle and glowing an evil shade of red making the atmosphere tense and more than a little nerve wracking.

"I'm getting this damn tracking chip out…" Weiss grunted as she succeeded in ripping the small disk off the end of her scroll. She quickly ripped the few remaining wires out of the end of the scroll before tossing the device over the edge of the ramp. There was no noise indicating it hitting the floor, making Ruby wonder just how far the ramp continued.

Ren used his bladed weapon to pop the disk off his scroll in a matter of seconds, following Weiss's lead and dropping it over the side into the pitch that surrounded the dark red crystal.

"But wouldn't they know where we are still?" Ruby asked as she pulled a small knife from her pocket to remove her device.

"No, the crystal makes too much interference. They won't know if we went up or down or how far." Weiss responded, counting the thirtieth floor down. Her watch said it was already one o clock, meaning they had about one hour to get Nora and three to get back to the plane, assuming they followed Weiss's instructions.

"So, why is there an underground fortress burried under your house?" Ren asked after a slightly awkward silence.

"According to what I've been told, this place was the human's stronghold in the great war before we pushed the creatures of grimm back." Weiss explained. "It would make sense that the place was made to withstand attacks of any kind, regardless of how unlikely they seemed."

"I guess that makes sense." Ruby nodded. She had long since dropped Weiss's hand in order to draw Crescent Rose from her belt. She switched the gun back and forth every couple of minutes between the two modes.

 _Thirty four. We're here._ Weiss stopped in front of a massive iron door with mideaval looking lions head knockers on each door that appeared to weigh several tons a piece.

"We go in here." Weiss said. She looked at Ruby first then at Ren on her other side. "I don't know what we'll find, but don't kill unless you have to. And load those special rounds I gave you, Ruby."

Ren gave a grunt that could've meant anything and Ruby surprised Weiss with a quick peck on the cheek before she swapped her magazine to another one she pulled out of her belt carfully.

"I'll take point." Ruby said as she used her speed on a kick that made the door bang like a gong and swing open quickly, slamming into a wall and stopping dead, a loud crack echoing in the room beyond as dust came unsettled from the ceiling.

The room was very different from the ramp leading up to it. The walls were pure white and a thousand flourescent bulbs hung from the ceiling where their wireing was criscrossed over the painted stone. The room was filled with workstations where scientists were busy typing on ancient computers or mixing chemicals. At the end of the room was what appeared to be large metal boxes. Written in bold blocky letters on the boxes, was what Weiss was looking for. Grimm Sphere.

"We're in the right place." She informed her small team as the security guards in the room formed up around them. They had their guns levelled at the girls and the scientists glanced at them before continuing their work, unconcerned about the intrusion.

"Drop your weapons and surrender!" One of the guards yelled. Weiss couldn't easily tell who was in charge but she guessed that it was the guy that had spoken.

"If that is what you want…" Weiss sheathed her sword and raised her hands. Two large glyphs formed in between the team and the guards just before they opened fire. Bullets hit the glyphs as Weiss kept them up. She felt her energy slowly draining, and knew she'd be able to keep them up as long as the guards didn't use any explosives.

Ruby aimed her gun at one of the guards on the end and fired through Weiss's glyph. The round ignored the area of no momentum and the high calibre bullet exploded on impact with the man's leg. He screamed in agony as he flailed his arms, finger still pulling the trigger of his weapon as he lost balance on his remaining leg and crashed into the man beside him.

Chaos erupted in the room as stray bullets flew everywhere, ricochetting off the walls and ceiling and shattering tubes of chemicals and computers. The guard who'd spoken shot a bullet through the amputated man's head, and his finger fell from the trigger as the man underneath him pushed his body off and stood.

"Crowd control, Ruby." Weiss said, drawing Myrenaster and loading the blue dust chamber. "Ren, get the eggheads into a corner. I'll be support."

"Right." Ren and Ruby nodded as Weiss stabbed her weapon into the stone below her and dropped her glyphs. The ice encased the feet of the guards who were all standing in a group, pinning them in place to make easy targets for Ruby. Ren used his machine guns to heard the terrified scientists into a corner as he destroyed the vials that flew through the air as the occasional scientist got a burst of courage.

Ruby spun her scythe so quickly Weiss couldn't see it as she smashed the blunt hammer end into the guards, causing them to fall like marrionettes with their strings cut. In a matter of seconds, the scientists were gathered in a large group, the guards were knocked out and pinned to the floor with ice, and Ren was moving to open the doors on the large metal boxes.

Ruby kept the scientists pacified, announcing their intentions as Weiss inspected the room for anything that she had missed. There were cameras, but that wasn't anything unusual. She inspected the workstations as she walked past, looking at almost indecipherable mathematical equations and words that were far too long to pronounce and had to be abreviated. Symbols marked the sheets in every corner, indicating that it was indeed her father's company running the lab. She passed into the next row to find a scientist in a pool of blood, a small puncture over his heart where a ricochetting bullet had landed. Weiss frowned at the unintended casualty before moving on. It felt like she was someone else as she surveyed the situation, looking for whatever was giving her the feeling she'd forgotten something of vital importance.

"Nora!" Ren yelled as he opened the last door and ran inside. A moment later, he walked back out, carrying Nora and looking at Weiss for their next step.

"We got what we came here for. Let's go." She said to Ruby as she loaded another dust round and froze the scientists to the floor. She looked over them all as they wondered what was going to happen to them. "It'll melt in about an hour. Faster if you struggle. Either way I can't have you following us."

She walked away, leading her team out of the room. They had only walked up the ramp one floor when they stopped to hear the clacking noise of a cane hitting the stone ramp as the owner walked around the crystal and into view.

His white jacket shone red like he'd been painted with blood. His legs were almost invisible in the dark red light as he continued to walk, leading a shifting black mass that could only be a small army behind him. He stopped when he noticed the team on the ramp below him. The slight shuffle of those following him stopped and there was nothing but silence as Ren carfully placed the unconsious Nora down at the side of the ramp away from the crystal.

Roman Torchwick took a moment to readjust his hat as Ruby, Weiss and Ren all drew their weapons. Torchwick watched as they took their positions, ready for a fight. And as they stood still waiting for the first move of battle, Weiss realized what had been bothering her. Torchwick's signed photo had been on one of the desks she'd passed.

"This should be interesting." He said as he stepped to the side and the people behind him charged down the slope.

Ruby jumped into action, dropping as many of the guards as she could as they ran forward, brandishing a variety of melee weapons. Axes and cleavers, lead pipes and knives all waved around as Ruby and Ren parried the attacks and countered. Ruby knew these were trained fighters as she felt a knife catch her sleeve, ripping a hole in it. Weiss was dueling a man with a long cane that seemed like he'd come straight out of a ninja movie as he avoided Weiss's attacks and countered to be barely blocked as the rapier weilding girl slowly lost her ground, being the last line of defense in front of Nora.

All three had lost track of Torchwick in the darkness and chaos. The man dueling Weiss swung his staff hard, catching her off guard. She dropped to the ground as quickly as she could, feeling the wind off the metal pole as it whipped by her, catching a stray strand of hair and ripping it out of her head. She used her crouched position to spring forward, in a move that surprised her quary, tackling him with her right shoulder and sending him stumbling back.

He lost his balance as his foot left the ledge of the winding ramp and he screamed as he fell. The scream seemed to make everyone stop and listen as it went on for a whole twenty seconds before it suddenly stopped. The echo still reverberating through the tower.

Everyone seemed to jump back into fighting with a more powerful will than before. Ren was the next one to take down an attacker as he charged past, heading for Weiss. He kicked the man off the walkway, making a loud crunch as he hit the crystal before he too, fell screaming.

Ren and Weiss continued to take individuals that ran past the main battle with Ruby in the center as she seemed to be easily fighting seven of the professionals at once. A short scream echoed as one of the men fell away, a giant slash stretching from his shoulder to the opposite hip. Ruby kept her momentum and slammed the hammer end of her scythe into one of her other attackers, knocking him over.

Three more people were thrown off the balcony before Weiss picked up on loud marching that was coming their way. The low rumble was difficult to hear over the clanging of their dueling, but was unmistakably there.

"We have reinforcements coming!" Weiss yelled to her team as she dispatched another enemy with a slash to the throat that sent him spinning onto the floor, blood spewing out the fatal wound. "Ren, get Nora. Ruby, cover me. I'm going to try something!"

"As long as it's not the same plan as last time!" Ruby replied, remembering the rescue mission to save her sister.

Weiss pulled out her spent dust cartridge and placed her secondary one in. She only had the single cartridge left and they still had a long way to go before they could be considered home free.

"Get ready to run!" Weiss yelled as she loaded the explosive dust and sent it out in a wide arc at the crystal that seemed to glow brighter as it stuck to the sides. Weiss grabbed one of Ren's weapons off his hip as he came up carrying Nora. Ruby gave a grunt as she sent all her attackers back a few steps from a heavy glancing blow. "Ruby!"

Ruby spun and saw Weiss holding out her hand. With the usual burst of petals, Ruby grabbed onto both her and Ren after holstering her weapon. Ren seemed confused and Weiss fired the weapon at the crowd of fighters, forcing a hole to form in their ranks.

"Now!" Weiss ordered Ruby as she emptied the clip, aiming at the crystal.

Weiss lost all sense of hearing as the explosive dust detonated, severing the towering dust crystal in half. The upper half started to crumble as its pieces fell onto the walkway, exploding small pothole sized chunks out of the smooth stone, and in places leaving large holes through the meter thick stone.

Ruby flared her semblance, draging Weiss and Ren behind her as fast as she could, forcing their feet to fly behind them as she gained speed. Weiss felt a pop in her arm and the stab of pain told her she'd just had her arm dislocated from the constant pull. She pushed the pain out of her mind, deciding she could worry about it if they got out alive.

The shards of crystal were falling faster than ever as Weiss counted down to floor five. They hadn't run into reinforcements so Weiss assumed that they had been coming from below.

"This is us!" Weiss yelled at Ruby through the rush of wind. Ruby ducked through the door to the first floor and stopped, Weiss stumbled at the sudden disappearance of momentum and Ren landed with Nora on top of him. She was still unconscious.

"I'm exhausted…" Ruby mumbled as she slipped to the floor. Weiss looked up to see twenty armed guards all pointing their weapons at them.

"You guys just don't quit, do you?" Weiss huffed, loading the next chamber in her multi action dust rapier and tossing Ren his weapon that he caught while drawing its twin.

Weiss moved in front of Ruby and poised herself in her ready stance as the sound of exploding crystal fragments echoed out of the door behind them. Ren kneeled beside her as they waited for the guards to attack.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **As you have no doubt noticed, I have added a few different main characters to this volume. One of them is Ozpin. As always, let me know what you think, and thank you for reading!**


	3. PROJECT GRIMM SPHERE: Chapter 3

"Stand down!" A familiar voice echoed from behind the crowd of guards. "I will not have you stand in the way of the heir of the Schnee-"

A single gunshot echoed down the hall and the voice died. The guards all shifted uncomfortably and Weiss saw her opportunity. She lunged forward, sweeping the legs out from under the front row of guards as Ren peppered the rest with his weapons. Even though they had bullet proof armour on, the impacts were enough to land most of them on the ground. Weiss stood and threw up a glyph that covered the group as a few guards recovered enough to return fire.

Weiss spotted a puddle of red with a black suited man at its center at the other end of the hall. A simple cane lay beside him as his body twitched and he coughed up blood, making the puddle grow slightly bigger.

"Kill them." Weiss growled, a fury she hadn't often felt before, coursing through her veins.

She dropped her glyph and fired explosive dust into the air in front of her. She switched to the red dust chamber and fired creating a fireball that incinerated the guards unlucky enough to be caught in its blast.

She threw up another glyph as the smoke cleared and more bullets tried to find the group. Weiss hadn't even noticed that Ren was standing still behind her, not making a move and instead simply crouching in front of Nora.

Weiss counted seven of the twenty dead and charred as she stepped forward, moving the glyph with her.

As she passed a lucky survivor, she impaled his throat on Myrenaster before continuing on. One guard at the back started to run, and Weiss caught him with another glyph, sealing off the escape route.

"Who shot Claude?" Weiss asked, her voice full of venom as she approached another guard who'd lost his leg in the explosion and was clearly close to bleeding out. "Was it you?"

The man fell dead, a small hole in his neck where Weiss had punctured his spine. She looked around and felt the weight of everything crash down on her. Words Ruby'd said on their last rescue mission flashing through her mind. _If we kill them, we sink to their level._ Weiss felt regret for her actions pulse through her chest and she glanced back at Ruby to see her watching Weiss. Her expression was guarded of emotion simply showing that she was paying attention to what was happening, not telling Weiss she was right or wrong.

Weiss continued to walk, this time only knocking out the guards as she passed. They were only doing their jobs, after all. If anyone was to blame, it was her father and Torchwick. She knocked the last of the guards out and approached the butler who lay dead. Looking down, she saw the bullet hole that had punctured the man's lung and caused him to suffocate. His mouth was covered in a mess of blood that he'd coughed up and his eyes stared blankly to the left.

After what felt like forever, Ruby crouched over the elderly man and bushed her hand over his eyes, closing them. "Thank you, Claude…"

Weiss felt her eyes burn as Ruby wrapped her arm around her shoulders and guided her away toward the exit. Ren followed with Nora once again in his arms. Weiss felt the world getting darker as they exited the castle to see the plane starting its engines on the runway.

* * *

"Probably from using her aura so much. But that's not the priority!" Someone said loudly.

"It might be a combination from the shock of losing her butler that way." Another voice added calmly. This one was much deeper than the first and farther away.

"Well we still need an explanation because after all this, I'm finding it hard to trust miss powder puff over there!" A third voice yelled in response to the other two. The voice was high pitched and sounded very angry.

"Look, she did find Nora and made sure they all returned saftely." The fourth voice seemed more tired than anything. "I'm going to report what happened to Ozpin. He'll probably want to talk to you too though."

"Fine!" The first voice sighed. "But not till we're back at beacon. I'm going to try to enjoy the rest of this trip. I can always worry about everything else tomorrow."

"You are impossible, you know that?" The third voice responded incredulously. "I have half a mind-"

"That's enough! Yang, I know you're a bit confused, but I can tell you that you are misdirecting your anger toward Weiss. She doesn't run the business after all. Not yet." A fifth voice chimed in, calm and cool. "Not to mention she's just lost someone obviously important to her and you are her teammate. At least try to be considerate!"

"Ughh! Fine! But if this keeps happening, I'm going to start breaking skulls! Beginning with hers!" Stomping indicated Yang had gone away.

"Just leave her to me. She's more scared of the order Weiss gave before you left. She was terrified she wouldn't see you again." The fifth voice said. "Just take it easy, Ruby. Like you said, it can all wait untill tomorrow."

"Thanks, Blake." Ruby said.

Weiss was lying down on a soft bed. She couldn't understand why her teammates were talking so close, but was too tired to open her eyes, never mind say anything about it. She felt the bed sag slightly as someone else got in beside her. A moment later, soft lips brushed her forehead and Ruby whispered in her ear.

"I love you, Weiss. I'm glad I'm your partner."

The girl beside her fell asleep. Her breathing slowing to a crawl. Weiss on the other hand felt like she could sleep for several days if she could only get her mind to slow down.

At first it was just wandering through her memories. Birthdays, easters, Christmas's, basically every family oriented day she could think of. Sure her parents were in a few of them. Hell, most of them were of meetings where she was simply left to her own affairs in a corner and told not to make any noise. A few more were of various locations with random staff surrounding her as she celebrated yet another year in captivity.

But it wasn't long until she started to notice the one person who seemed to be on the sidelines of most of the memories. Claude had placated her when she'd broken her toy in the middle of her father's business meeting. He'd taken the initiative to plan her vacations and as often as possible had been her accompanying guardian when she went anywhere her parents weren't. He'd always wished her a happy whatever the holiday was, and she finally realized it wasn't just because he worked for her and wanted to be promoted or get a raise. He'd been old when Weiss had finally taken notice of him and asked his name. Since that day, he'd been more of a father to her than her own sorry excuse for a father.

Weiss felt her eyes burn hot as the memories continued to wash over, along with flashes of the pool of blood, the guards she'd killed and the dead look in Ruby's eyes as she watched her kill them.

"Hey, sleepy, you need to eat." Ruby said loudly. Weiss snapped her eyes open, disoriented for a minute until she realized she was looking at the roof of a plane.

"What?" She asked, thinking she'd misheard Ruby.

"You need to eat!" Ruby laughed before leaning over her and kissing her. "I made sandwiches for everyone."

Weiss sat up, looking around at the sleeping people around the cabin. Nora occupied the other bed, Ren sitting on the floor beside it, his eyes closed as if he was meditating. Jaune and Pyrrha had fallen asleep on a chair, Jaune in the chair, Pyrrha laying across the arms of the chair and Jaune's legs as if she'd collapsed while sitting on an arm. Blake had Yang's head leaning on her shoulder as she read a book. Yang was snoring loudly as Blake took a fresh tissue from a nearby box and wiped the drool off her mouth before it landed on her shirt.

"Why did you wake me up?" Weiss grumbled as her exhaustion punched through her groggyness.

"I need to talk to you before anyone else does." Ruby said almost sadly. "I already talked to Ren, but I need to talk to you too before we're back at Beacon."

"This has to do with Nora, right?" Weiss guessed. Ruby nodded, casting a glance over at the bed she slept on.

"She was given some type of anesthetic. She should be fine till we get her to Vale. But I need to know why."

Weiss thought. There were a thousand answers she could only guess at. Why was Torchwick there? Why didn't he fight? Why did they kidnap Nora? Why was it necessary to rescue her? And why did they shoot Claude? No matter what question Weiss asked herself, she came up with the same answer. "I honestly don't know."

Ruby seemed somewhat disappointed by the answer, but didn't push it. Instead she gave Weiss a plate with a sandwich on it. Seeing the food, her stomache let out a loud growl, drawing Blake's eyes away from her book for a moment.

Weiss shovelled the sandwich into her mouth. It was probably the best thing she'd ever tasted. Her mind scolded her overindulgent opinion as her reason argued it was only because Ruby'd made it for her and she hadn't eaten since the protien bar that'd passed as lunch.

Ruby took the plate and put it away before coming to sit beside Weiss.

The two were quiet, each in their own thoughts about the previous day. And finally, Weiss broke. Her tears flowing down her face as she shook with the effort of keeping her sobs quiet.

"Shhh… it's gonna be okay…" Ruby said, gently embracing Weiss in a soft hug and rubbing her back. "It's all over now…"

"I'm so sorry, Ruby!" Weiss appologised. Again, Ruby's stony face popped into her mind and she started to cry harder. "I… I killed… all… all of those… guards… because they k… killed Claude… and… and they wanted to kill… you…"

"Shhh…" Ruby replied, giving Weiss a kiss on the neck where she knew Weiss liked it to no effect. "You only did what you had to."

Weiss was unable to reply as she continued to cry into Ruby's shoulder, the other girl rubbing her back. Something about the moment felt to Weiss like how she imagined a mother would hold her daughter, never having the chance to experience that type of relationship.

"And I'm sorry about Claude. I know he meant a lot to you." Ruby mumbled as she pulled Weiss down onto the bed. Through her sobbing, Weiss heard Ruby start to sing softly so only she'd hear. "So long, light of dawn… darkness take me in, soundlessly holding on… in the depths, silent world, long ago… all that will remain, broken heart, farewell… memories of better days… locked within in hopes that we will remember… someday we may wake to find sunrise."

Weiss stopped crying and Ruby stopped singing. "Thanks, Ruby." She croaked out of her tired and sore throat. She felt like Ruby'd taken all her sadness and put it somewhere where it couldn't harm her anymore.

"I love you Weiss. Goodnight." Ruby kissed Weiss slowly and Weiss felt a feeling of calm steal over her.

"Love you too…" She responded as her eyes fluttered closed. She fell asleep wrapped in Ruby's arms, the warm body pressed up against her in a way that seemed as if it was completely natural.

* * *

"You let her escape?"

"What did you expect me to do? I'm not getting a hole blown in me by the crazy 'I blow holes through meter thick cement' heiress!" Torchwick spat in response.

"You over-estimate her, Roman." The voice responded pityingly.

"And you underestimate her!" Roman almost yelled in response. "Do you even know what happened? She levelled the tower! Sixty were killed, mostly guards that couldn't escape along with a few scientists that were stupid enough to try running though the collapsing power crystal!"

"Well, it is of little importance. It is simply a matter that we will deal with later." The voice said smoothly.

"And what's this 'we'? I thought we were done after today!" Roman argued.

"We are only done when our plan is carried through. You don't want to fail me, Roman. Not again." Roman flinched at the unspoken threat.

"Whatever… I captured the main objective anyway. I sent it to your scroll. I'll expect my payment sometime today." Roman said, wanting nothing more than to end the conversation.

"We'll be in contact again soon." The voice responded as Roman clicked the hang up button on his scroll.

"How did I get roped into this in the first place?" Roman asked himself shaking his head and walking into the bar. The bartender looked up at him as he sat down on the stool. He knew he looked like he'd gone through a battle and the fact was that he had. His white jacket had specs of blood here and there with massive smears of dirt and dust everywhere. His once black hat looked closer to gray. "Vodka. Leave the bottle."

The bartender nodded, placed a shot glass on the counter and opened a bottle of the clear liquid and filled the shot. He passed both items to Roman before walking over to take another mans order.

The man sat down beside Roman as the bartender served him a pint of imported beer.

Roman took his shot and refilled the glass. He repeated the process twice more before he started to feel a bit better from the long day he'd had.

"Long day, huh?" The man asked before he took a large swig from his glass.

"Something of the sort, yes." Roman responded. "Probably worse than yours."

"Oh, I very much doubt that!" The man laughed sardonically, taking another swig.

The two men stayed silent Roman took shot after shot, emptying the bottle. He tossed some lien on the bar and got up. The man sitting beside him had finished his beer and was half way through a bottle of whisky but didn't even have a tinge of red on his cleanly shaven face.

Roman turned to leave when the man's hand caught his arm. "You're going to have to pick a side in this, and you don't want to pick the losing one."

Roman's brain snapped through the fog of the alcohol and focused intently on the man before him. "O-kay." He drew out the word, not wanting to let on that the man had spoken what he'd been thinking not an hour ago.

"It's like flipping a coin. The winner will be determined by those who support them. Just don't underestimate those you'd think of as small or weak. If anything, that will be your downfall."

The man turned back to his whisky, forgoing the shot glass and chugging the remaining half of the bottle in one go. He left Roman standing in the bar, his thoughts racing. Below them all, one question persisted. _Who was that?_

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **The song Ruby sings is taken from the song Silver Sky by** **ナノ (Nano)** **. As usual, the rights to this song belong to whoever owns them, because I sure don't.**


	4. Consequences of Battle: Chapter 4

The plane's door opened to the brightly lit runway of the Vale Airport. Jaune led both teams down to the waiting Professor. Ozpin stood alone, sipping his signature cup of coffee as he watched the teams approach. He took mental notes on everyone that he'd write down later.

He noticed Nora first, her body in Ren's arms, small puffs of her breath visible in the bright floodlighting. Next he noticed Ruby and her partner standing slightly farther away from each other than was usual in the past months. Weiss seemed to be visibly exhausted, but that was most likely due to the mission Jaune had informed him of. Pyrrha was mumbling in Jaune's ear as he kept his stride steady. Both Blake and Yang were at the back of the group, which was a rare occurence as the blond often stayed close to her sister.

"Good morning." He said as the group stopped before him. He took a sip of tea, carfully looking over everyone. "I have a few questions for some of you before you head back to your dorms."

"Sir, I'd like to take care of Nora first." Ren said as he stepped forward.

"Jaune, I have no questions for you and Pyrrha. Please take your teammate to the terminal where a medical team is waiting." Ozpin instructed, looking over the rest and deciding who he felt it was the most urgent to talk to. "Yang can help you as well."

"Sure thing!" Yang piped up. Ren reluctantly handed Nora over as Yang assured him she'd take good care of her. Then she led the way to the terminal with the leaders of JNPR in tow. When they reached the doors, Jaune looked back with a grim look on his face. He paused as if he was about to say something, but then he turned and followed everyone else inside.

Ozpin heard the door click shut, but didn't speak as he looked over the four students before him. Of them, only Blake seemed confused as to why he'd wanted to speak with her.

"I have already recieved the report from Mr. Schnee detailing the damages. Of note there were sixty bodies recovered from the center of the collapsed tower which will cost one hundred million lien to rebuild." Ozpin stated, looking at Weiss who didn't react at all. "You are not being held responsible, so that matter has been rather cut and dry." He paused to take a sip from his coffee. "Now I understand from Jaune that Weiss found Nora's location and organized this group, minus Blake, to retrieve her."

"Yes. Nora was abducted while walking down the hall alone." Weiss affirmed in a more robotic tone than was usual. Ozpin remained silent, and Weiss quickly continued. "Security getting in was minimal and easily avoided. Once we got to the room, we encountered guards who probably sent for backup. We rescued Nora and left to find a group of guards and Roman Torchwick. Torchwick disappeared in the fight and we destroyed the crystal to serve as a distraction. We left shortly after."

Ozpin nodded here and there throughout Weiss's explanation. "Well, that concludes my questions for you. Please rejoin your friends." He watched as Weiss walked away. Paying close attention to the slope in her shoulders and the slight drag of her feet as she walked through the shallow snow.

He turned back to see Ruby looking away from her teammate and Ren slowly rubbing his arms as if he was determining how cold he felt. _These children are not ready. Not even close._ The thought ran through his mind, reminding him of the purpose they'd serve in the future. He let out a sigh before taking another drag on his cold and almost empty coffee mug.

"I would like to ask about Weiss's actions while in combat." He watched their reactions. Ruby seemed to try and shrink away without actually going anywhere while Ren remained unfazed. Blake wore her usual mask of indiference. "I am only asking because I know of the stress that accumulates from being in combat, and Weiss seems to be experiencing a great deal of stress at the moment."

To Ren's credit, he remained silent. Ruby looked like she might start crying, but her voice was strong. "I don't know what to do! I try to help, but she won't tell me what's bothering her!"

"I believe she's having difficulty handling everything on her plate at the moment." Blake said thoughtfully as she placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder.

"Very well. I will arrange something that should help." Ozpin said as he turned toward the terminal. "Your teams are waiting for you."

* * *

Ruby walked in looking like she'd just been crying. Her eyes were puffy and red, but her brow was furrowed as if she was thinking hard. She almost walked into Jaune before she realized she'd come up to the group. She took one look around before continuing her walk around them. Yang watched her sister walk away as Blake stopped at her side. Once again the faunus had her book out and was reading.

"What's up with Ruby?" Yang asked without looking away. Ruby pushed the door open so quick that the impact resistant glass shattered in a spiderweb of fractures. "She looks a little upset."

"Probably girl troubles." Blake responded as she turned a page.

"I thought everything was good considering yesterday morning." Yang said, watching an explosion of rose petals before turning away from the door.

"I think there was something that happened more recently." Blake suggested as she looked up from her book at Weiss.

Weiss had her eyes closed and was standing alone even though she was in the middle of the group. She swayed slightly, standing slightly away from everyone. She hadn't even noticed Ruby walk by and seemed to be waiting.

Yang tapped Weiss on the shoulder, getting her attention. "Ruby left already. Wanna get a taxi back?" She asked wondering what was happening, but respecting their privacy.

"No thank you. I'm not going back to beacon today." Weiss stated before turning and walking away. The slouch in her shoulders seemed even more evident than it had when she'd walked in.

"There is nothing you can do. You just have to let them work it out for themselves." Blake advised, keeping Yang from following the white haired girl.

"I know." Yang sighed, looking over at Nora who'd been woken up and was now having a blood sample taken. "Anyone wanna grab a drink? Pyrrha? Jaune?"

"No thank you. I'm going to stay with Ren and Nora." Pyrrha said respectfully. Jaune nodded in agreement with a shrug saying he wasn't in the mood.

"I could go for something." Blake said, placing her book back in her pocket.

Yang was shocked at Blake's response and smiled. "I thought you didn't drink?"

Blake nodded in agreement. "Normally, yes. But I feel like it would be more fun if I were to join you."

"Alright! We are totally having a shot contest!" Yang cheered as she pulled Blake along behind her.

"Winner pays the taxi." Blake added, already planning their trip back to Beacon.

"Not the drinks?" Yang asked in mock shock.

"I'm not wasting money to get you blackout drunk." Blake responded firmly.

"Killjoy." Yang pouted. She crossed her arms and tried to make Ruby's signature puppy dog face but failed horribly. Blake cracked up as they exited the building and started walking down the long road to Vale.

"I just realized it's three in the morning. Is there even a place open right now?" Blake asked as they walked.

"Only one place, but it's nice and small. It's a bit of a dive but not many people go there." Yang said. Blake wasn't completely sold on the idea, but figured that she'd at least give it a look before pulling Yang back to Beacon. She nodded and Yang picked up her pace, pulling Blake along the icy road.

* * *

Weiss felt like she'd been hit by a truck. Her head pounded and the bright morning light felt like daggers stabbing into her eyes. She shielded her eyes as she sat up and felt the world spin arround her. _Damn hangover._ She thought, as she willed the spinning to stop.

Once it did, she took in her surroundings. The usual stacks of books, the two remaining beds, the pile of styrofoam in the corner, and the generally messy desk stacked with papers and binders told her that she was in the Beacon dorm. _How did I get back here?_ She asked herself as she got up to head for a shower. She couldn't remember much of the previous night except that it included a fairly large volume of alcohol.

She wished that she'd thought to keep pain killers in the room in case of emergency as the knives her eyes had become stabbed deeper into her brain. She reached the dark washroom and shut the door, leaving the lights off in an attempt to alleviate her pain.

The steaming hot water felt heavenly as it slowly washed the grime of the previous day from her scarred body. The scars from Yang's rescue mission almost glowed white in the dark room that was illuminated by the outlets that had their green power lights steadily blinking. Weiss marvelled at how she hadn't earned any new ones since that disasterous mission. She finished and wiped an area of the mirror to look at her face.

She took note of everything that was different than when she'd started at Beacon. The only positive effect she found was the corners of her mouth were lifted from the almost constant smiling she did when in the company of Ruby. The rest she wasn't pleased with. She had started to develop lines on her forehead and her eyes were more sunken than normal. Today, they were also red and swollen looking. Her scar over her left eye had another smaller scar on the bottom half that had appeared from the same mission as the scars on her arm. Letting out a sigh, she braced herself and gathered up her old clothes, tossing them into the empty laundry. Just as she turned toward the door, her scroll let out an earpiercing beep that put a new knife in her head.

 _Oh! God!_ Weiss thought as she fumbled through her jacket as she searched the pockets for her scroll. Her hand swerved around several vials of dust and several more high caliber cartriges that she'd held onto in case Ruby ever ran out. Her hand closed around the slightly larger cylinder and she pulled it out just as the only light on its exterior flashed a brilliant white in her eyes as it let out another hangover amplified beep. She almost dropped it as the pain radiated through her skull. Her thumb hit the release and the device popped open, its display temporarily blinding Weiss as her thumb automatically hit the notification that shone in blaring bright red in the top corner of the screen.

"This message is to inform Weiss Schnee that you have an evaluation taking place at four o clock today at Vale Psychiatric Hospital. This evaluation is mandatory in order to continue attendance at Beacon Academy. Good day." The loud voice fell silent and Weiss slammed the device shut.

 _I just don't get a break, do I?_ Weiss walked out of the bathroom to find a bottle of the pain killers clutched in Yang's hand as she poured out a handfull and tossed them into her mouth like candies.

"Hand me two of those." Weiss said in a harsh whisper as she pulled her sunglasses off the dresser that she shared with Ruby and slammed them onto her face.

"Bottles? Or handfulls?" Yang asked, gesturing to the large pile of bottles beside her.

"Pills, Yang. Pills." Weiss said as she approached and held out her hand. Yang shrugged and dropped the requested drugs into her hand before returning to swallowing one every few seconds. "And you're going to kill yourself if you take all those."

Yang paused for a second, and spun the bottle around. "I guess twenty times the dosage ought to do." She stated as she emptied the rest of the pills in her hand back into the bottle. She was already wearing her aviators and seemed to be dealing with her hangover relatively well.

"Pass me a bottle." Blake groaned as she rolled over in her bed, her pillow surrounding her head as she woke to the pain of her first ever hangover. "Or kill me. That's probably a better option."

"It's just a hangover, chill." Yang said, her voice making Weiss wince and Blake curl up into a fetal position. She tossed the half empty bottle at Blake who managed to catch it with her head still under the pillow. Her hand disappeared under the pillow for a moment before she tossed out the empty bottle.

Weiss finished getting dressed and checked the time. It was only one, so she'd definitely have time to get something to eat and drink before her appointment. She headed to the door, calling back as the pills started to work their magic. "I'm out."

"Shut up! Remember I have faunus hearing and eyesight to deal with!" Blake yelled from under her pillow.

"Wow, you sure did draw the short straw on this one, Blake." Yang said with a laugh, poking the pillow.

"Fuck you!" Blake responded with a kick that missed by millimeters as Weiss closed the door behind her. She was honestly glad she didn't have to deal with Ruby's squeaky voice this morning, and looking at the mood Yang was in, she was glad she'd woken up first.

* * *

Weiss cringed at every noise she heard on the way to Vale and was starting to regret not overdosing like her teammates had on the painkillers. She perservered long enough to get the largest cup of coffee from her favourite shop before almost running down an alley to get away from the crowds.

"Hey there, pretty girl." A voice came from what Weiss had thought was just a pile of rags. "You come for some fun?" He laughed with a crazy high pitched voice that made Weiss hold her head.

"First, shut up because I have a killer headache. Second, I have no problems with ridding the streets of one homeless rapist." Weiss grumbled as she continued past the bundle and into the back lane.

The man didn't follow as Weiss kept walking, getting closer and closer to the location where the hospital was supposed to be. Even through the darkness the sunglasses afforded her, she was slowly became aware of the small red bloodstains in the snow here and there as if someone had been walking while wounded. Even more odd than the sporadic blood stains that swerved back and forth down the alley, was the smell of used dust and the complete lack of snow down the middle, leaving only rough ice as if it had been melted and refrozen before the water had time to settle.

She crossed a street, sheilding her eyes from the bright sun and ducking her head as the noise started to press in on her again. Once on the other side, she breathed a sigh of relief knowing it was only one more block and then she'd just wait in the quiet waiting room.

The waiting room was much nicer than Weiss had expected. It was small and painted in colors that seemed to force you into relaxing. The lights were old fashioned incandescent bulbs instead of the standard banks of flourescents that were so common everywhere else and it seemed that the place wasn't very busy as only one other person sat in the room.

Weiss noticed that the woman seemed to be mumbling under her breath while looking at a solid wall, and decided to take the seat furthest from the woman. She sipped her coffee slowly, watching the second hand on the clock slowly make its way around over and over and over. Slowly, her hangover started to leave as the caffiene worked its way through her brain.

With the pain in her skull dulled as far as she expected it to for the time being, she started to think back to the previous night. All that came back were flashes of sitting alone at a bar, then of her teammates interupting her, followed by what she guessed was a shot contest and then blackness. She decided that she wouldn't want to know and instead pulled out her scroll to check the usual news sites. She ignored the article detailing an _accident_ at White Castle, and instead opened the second one that seemed much more random and strange than she was used to on this site. She disabled the video and sound, opting to read the text to keep the atmosphere in the room tranquil.

 _The Vale Police Department is investigating after reports of pools of blood in almost every back alleyway in Vale. The VPD spokesperson released an early statement that the blood was not human or faunus, and that it appears to have come from rats._ Weiss skipped the filler of the article that was always put in to add a bit of flavour around the point of the piece. _As of now, the VPD is asking for anyone who might know anything about the Rat Killer, though they will be hard pressed to divert their investigative team from the most recent string of dust shop robberies._

 _Well, that would have to make the top spot in 'wierdest news I've ever heard.'_ Weiss thought, her brain still processing what she'd read.

"Miss Schnee?" A young lady nurse asked, poking her head into the room and looking at it's two occupants. Weiss gave a slight wave of acknowledgement. "Please follow me."

She got up and followed the nurse with the short brown hair that led her down the hall. She passed several security guards and Weiss started to get an uneasy fealing as the nurse opened a large steel door. She placed a hand on her weapon to reassure herself that everything was okay, and remembered that she still had enough extra dust cartridges to last at least a short battle. _What am I even doing? I'm getting a psyche eval!_

"Please leave your weapon on the table." The nurse said outside an even thicker steel door that made the last one look like paper.

 _Oh, hell no!_ "Sorry, that's not going to happen." She said forcefully. She gripped the hilt, indicating she had no intention of letting it go.

The nurse sighed like she was too tired to put up with her attitude. "At least leave your dust cartridges." She said, indicating the slight glow on the hilt.

Weiss didn't see a problem with taking the chamber out of the weapon, but she wasn't handing it over even if she did have one extra on her. She put it in an empty pocket and looked back at the nurse who frowned but opened the door for her to pass.

As soon as Weiss stepped into the room, the door shut behind her. Looking around, she found that she was actually in a very small room that had green carpet that matched the grass on the other side of a window. The small square field was surrounded by mirrors that Weiss easily recognized as the one way type; only reflecting on one side.

The rest of the room had one smaller door that led somewhere else and a small bed-like couch and chair. Weiss took the chair. She always felt as if a couch was too large for one person to sit and her opinion had only changed slightly when Ruby had started to pull her down for what she had called 'cuddle time.' The chair was made of a nice leather and was nice and firm. Weiss felt like she could sit here for hours and not feel the need to stretch when she got up.

"Hello Weiss. I am your doctor Fred. Do you mind if I ask you to make yourself comfortable on the couch?" A man asked as the small door closed behind his entrance. Weiss caught the thick steel behind the wood panneling that was obviously supposed to make people think it was a weak point in the room's security.

"Unfortunately those are two words I cannot associate." Weiss responded coolly. She was already gauging what type of person this was to accomodate how she'd have to deal with him. Having been around Ruby so much had given her a few tricks that she would never have learnt otherwise.

"I see. You have chosen the power of position in an enclosed room where you have refused to abandon your weapon, though you did have the courtesy to temporarily disarm it." He started typing on a gauntlet that projected a screen of text whenever his fingers came into contact with it. He took a seat and stared at Weiss for a while.

Weiss tried her best to remain unfazed under his penetrating glare. After what felt like at least twenty minutes of silence, he looked away, again making a quick note on his arm-mounted device.

"You have a deep mistrust of strangers and your attention span when threatened is exceptional." He stopped and leaned back, making himself comfortable on the couch. "I'm sure you already know why you are here. I am just going to chat with you until I am able to answer the questions I have to. Is that alright?"

"It is fine, provided that you accept that in some cases I may be unable or unwilling to answer." Weiss advised, crossing her arms and preparing herself for what she suddenly realized might be a very long afternoon.

* * *

"I'll pass on that one." Weiss said with a sigh. She was exhausted and this psychiatrist wasn't getting any easier to deal with. It seemed like he constantly changed personalities.

"That is answer enough. Your significant other must have been concerned when you started to deal your revenge upon the guards." He stated as if it was common knowledge. Weiss frowned at his simple way of saying 'you witnessed a father figure's murder and started to kill everyone involved while your girlfriend watched.' "Why do you think that you wanted to get revenge on them?"

"Oh, I don't know. How about fair payment?" Weiss snapped back, now angry and wanting nothing more than to run the man through with Myrtenaster. "Why do you think I did it?"

"So you were hurt and you acted impulsively. But have you ever thought of the people you killed? About their families? Friends? Pets?" He asked and brought up his notes as he waited for Weiss's response.

"I am not a monster." Weiss responded quietly.

Fred nodded and typed a few words before continuing his questions. "I know you aren't Weiss. And I want to ask just one more question. What did you kill for? Was it for revenge? Out of anger? Or was it to protect someone? Or something?"

Weiss thought back to Yang's abduction first, wondering what had made her kill the sentries. Then she thought to the more recent rescue mission. _What is wrong with everyone always getting in trouble and having to get rescued?_ She thought before returning to her original thought. Both missions had been to get one of her friends back, but she had killed unnecessarily on both occasions before Ruby had stopped her. Nothing had forced her to, but it seemed that her answer would determine the outcome of this evaluation.

 _You're overthinking it. Just answer honestly._ She hesitated for a moment before taking her own advice. "I think it was to protect. But it was really to damage. To make the criminals pay for taking my teammate and later because they took a friend. In a way, I saw both happening at the same time. I killed to exact revenge, while at the same time it was because I didn't want them to be able to hurt them anymore."

"Do you think it was revenge that you wanted? Or was it something else?" He asked looking at Weiss with his piercing eyes.

"Well, it wasn't really that I wanted to pay them back, it was more that I was afraid if I didn't eliminate the problem, it would resurface. And I dislike dealing with problems twice." Weiss clarified with a sigh.

"I see…" He punched in one more word on his device and stood. "Well, that should be all for today. My office will contact you with any information you may need. Also, only the result of this evaluation will be sent to your headmaster, nothing else."

"Okay. Goodbye." Weiss said, also standing as the large door opened to allow her to leave.

"Also, if you find yourself in need of help, please don't hesitate to make an appointment." He said as Weiss left.

 _Yeah… and it'll be a cold day in hell._

* * *

Ruby walked around Vale, looking for a dust shop that still had propellant. It seemed that everywhere was either closed or waiting on a shipment that had yet to arrive. She cursed herself for not getting more dust before she left everyone at the airport, but she really needed a break from everything.

 _Remember when it was just you and me babe?_ She thought as she ran her hand up and down her weapon every few seconds. _We didn't have to deal with all those other people._ Her thoughts brought about more of Weiss. It felt like the amazing time she'd had just two nights ago was already in her distant past. She wondered if Weiss felt the same way.

 _No help thinking about that._ There was no way to know unless she asked her and as far as she knew, Weiss was at Beacon, waiting for her to come back eventually. She knew her sister was worried because of a long text she'd gotten on her scroll. She'd answered with a short 'I'm fine, be back later.' Yang had replied with the standard questions, but she'd ignored them. Even now, heading into the evening, she still hadn't had a single text from her girlfriend.

She reached into her pocket to check again when it beeped in her hand. She opened it to find a single line of text from Weiss. _Lucky Eight. ASAP. Just say my name._

 _What the hell is this? Isn't Lucky Eight a bar?_ Ruby wondered as she started in the general direction of the place. As it turned out, she was wandering around the same neighborhood that the bar was in and managed to get there relatively quickly.

A large man with biceps larger than her head stood guard in front of the door. He looked down at the young girl in front of him and crossed his arms as she cautiously approached him.

"Can I help you? We're closed. Opening time is at eight." He said in a surprisingly light voice that would have made Ruby look around for its source if she hadn't seen his mouth move.

"Um… my friend Weiss… uh… she said to say her name…" Ruby said, wondering what she was doing here.

"Mind if I ask the last name?" He asked kindly. He uncrossed his arms, taking a less threatening position. Ruby quickly said Weiss's last name and he nodded before stepping aside.

"I can just go in?" Ruby asked, surprised at how simple it was to get in anywhere if you were rich. The guard nodded and stepped back in front of the door as Ruby disappeared through the old and worn oak door that had it's black paint starting to fall off.

Inside, the bar had a stale rotting smell that was mixed heavily with the odor of alcohol. The lights were mostly off and the windows were painted black on the inside. The few lights that were on seemed to be only for safety as the countless booths along the left wall across from the bar were doused in heavy shadow. At first glance, the place looked deserted save for the bartender who was restocking the shelves behind the bar.

A slight shift in the shadows brought Weiss into view as Ruby's eyes finally adjusted enough to see through the almost black shadows at the booths. Ruby walked carefully over, taking care to avoid a suspicious looking puddle beside a table. She took her seat hoping that there was nothing there that would make her regret sitting down later.

"What's up Weiss?" She asked, looking around as the bartender delivered two shots of amber liquid to the table. Weiss downed the shot before drinking from a glass of water. Ruby hadn't noticed that there were already two glasses as well as a pitcher full of water hiding in the deeper shadows on the table.

"I don't want to talk about it." Weiss answered, pushing the other shot towards Ruby. Ruby slowly picked it up, examining the small glass with liquid that looked similar to apple juice. She knew from the strong smell coming off it, that it most definitely was not juice.

"I don't make a habit of drinking." Ruby responded, replacing the shot in front of Weiss.

"Then it'll go to waste." Weiss answered with a shrug.

"O-kay… so why'd you call me here?" Ruby asked, a small piece of her was celebrating that Weiss hadn't handled the situation the way her sister normally did - by taking the extra shot so it wouldn't get tossed.

"It's been a long day and I wanted to see you. Do I have to have a reason?" Weiss asked, sipping her water and staring at Ruby.

"I sort of hoped your reason was better than that." Ruby responded in a mumble. She couldn't help the nagging feeling that something was even more wrong with Weiss now than there was when she'd left early the previous morning.

Weiss remained silent, simply staring at Ruby. She examined how Ruby's hair was messy from using her semblance and from not having it fixed. Her face shone dully with dried on sweat and her clothing was identical to the items she wore on the plane. "You haven't slept since you left."

Ruby was impressed by Weiss's way of knowing what had happened by just looking at her. She nodded slowly, inspecting Weiss as best she could while she sat in shadow. Her eyes were sunken and more than a little puffy. Ruby could see thin lines in the girl's eyes, indicating her exhaustion and her hair was haphazardly wrapped into a bun. Stray strands hung on either side of her face and swayed whenever she tilted her head to drink from her glass. Combined, it told Ruby absolutely nothing. "I was busy…"

Weiss seemed to take this into consideration for a moment before she continued the conversation. "What's going on between us? I thought everything was good." This time, she whispered as she placed her head on the table, using her arm as a cushion.

Ruby thought the question over for what felt like the thousandth time since she'd left her team at the airport. She didn't have the complete answer, so she decided to say as much as she could.

"I'm not sure. Not completely at least." She started, hoping Weiss would bite and stop what came next. Weiss remained silent. "Back when we got Nora out… you scared me, Weiss. You did things I don't blame you for, but you didn't even blink! It was like you do that every day of your life, and you don't care anymore!"

Weiss sat back up and looked at Ruby straight in her eyes. Weiss saw the problems that her actions had caused; a war of emotions raging on inside Ruby.

"Ruby, can I ask you to come with me somewhere?" Weiss asked cautiously, knowing how high the stakes were that rested on Ruby's response. She watched the girl across from her, her stress level elevating by the second as she watched Ruby struggle to a decision. _I don't want to go there again, but I will if it'll help us._

"Okay." Ruby said at last. She nodded as if to reassure herself of her own intention before looking back up at Weiss. "I might be a little shaken, but I love you. I'll go with you wherever it is you want."

"Thank you, Ruby. Thank you." Weiss felt a tear slide from her eye. She quickly wiped it, hoping Ruby hadn't seen just how much her agreement meant to her. "I'll make the appointment for tomorrow."

"Appointment?" Ruby asked, wondering what she'd agreed to.

"I want to fix myself. I want to fix us. I want everything to be like it was before all that stupid business at White Castle." Weiss answered. It was the first time she'd voiced the thought that had run on loop since she'd returned, but it felt like it was a step in the right direction.

"Well, maybe not _everything_ …" Ruby said with a small smile as she attempted to lighten the mood with a small joke.

Weiss smiled at her team leader and pulled out her scroll to type the message. No sooner had she sent it than another one came in requesting a follow-up with Fred in order for her to stay in school. Weiss waited and a moment later another message showed up that her appointment had been relocated to a couples room. She hated that she'd resorted to taking their problems to a third party, but knew that was the best chance at fixing them.

"Everything okay?" Ruby asked as Weiss put her scroll away.

"How does tomorrow at two sound?"

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **Thank you all for reading! I'd just like to point out that this is a transition arc, so it will be short, and hopefully will help flesh out another side of Ruby and Weiss's relationship, as well as Weiss's personality and mentality and how it has changed since day one. Reviews (or PMs) are always welcomed as well as well as any constructive criticism.**


	5. Consequences of Battle: Chapter 5

Despite the message saying that her session had been moved into a couples room, Weiss had to marvel at how the room was exactly the same size, if not smaller than the other one. This time there was no window, and the only other difference was that the couch was replaced by two comfy looking arm chairs. Once again, Weiss opted for the more sturdy and thinly padded office chair that once again stood across from the two others. This time though, all three chairs were arranged so as to make three-way conversations easier.

Ruby came in after a minute. As Weiss expected, she had her weapon holstered. The only question remaining was if she gave up the ammunition. But it didn't really matter. Weiss knew Ruby wouldn't do anything harmful and instead hoped that Fred would be able to fix things.

Now that Weiss had met the doctor, she felt more comfortable letting her weapon go, as well as the next to useless ammunition she carried. She'd also emptied her pockets at the dorm and now only carried a single round for Ruby's weapon more as a good-luck charm than anything else. She was twirling it between her fingers as the two waited in silence for the doctor.

 _Calm down, Weiss! Hands still!_ She instructed herself, gripping the round until the unyielding brass bit into her palm. She heard the door open and Fred walked in with the interesting device already strapped on his arm.

"Hello Weiss!" He said as he reached out his hand to shake hers. "And I don't believe I've met you. I'm Weiss's and now your therapist, Fred."

"I'm Ruby." Ruby said quietly. It was obvious that Ruby was as nervous as Weiss had been the first time.

"I wanted to bring Ruby because we have a problem that relates to what we talked about last time." Weiss said, hoping to jump right in.

"Well, before we get to that: Ruby, how are you today? Probably a bit nervous because you don't know me, right?" Ruby nodded to his statement. Her hand was slowly moving away from her weapon as he talked. Something about his voice had a sort of calming effect. "And I'm going to guess that you're a bit stressed from having to lead a team even though you are a couple years younger than those you lead."

Another nod from Ruby with a quick glance at Weiss seemed to tell him something very important as he started making notes on his wrist device. Ruby looked at Weiss questioningly for a moment but Fred started explaining even as he typed.

"I see a great number of patients, and I find it much easier to keep track of where we are when I have a foundation to go off of in subsequent visits." He finished his note before looking up at the two of them. "If you don't mind, what exactly is your relationship? And more to the point of your visit, what is it about Weiss that is bothering you, Ruby?"

Weiss knew both questions were aimed at Ruby and nodded when Ruby looked over at her for help. "Um, well… its just that… in our last mission, Weiss… did something that scared me…" Ruby said, leaving the major parts out like she couldn't bring herself to say them.

Fred remained quiet, waiting for Ruby to answer the rest of his question. Weiss knew Ruby enough to know she wasn't going to open up to a stranger and stepped in. "I scared her by killing the guards who killed my butler."

"I see…" Fred nodded, looking from Ruby who was looking solely at him to Weiss who was facing him, but watching Ruby. "And your relationship?"

Weiss sighed tiredly and rubbed her head. "Well, before all this we were romantically involved… I don't know exactly where we stand now…. I don't want to make anything worse than it already is."

Ruby just shook her head as if to agree with Weiss. Fred responded by typing a note as usual. He watched the two carefully, just watching how they acted around each other for a moment before he announced his suspicions.

"Ruby, I know from talking with Weiss that this issue isn't a recent one to come to light, and I don't think it's the root of the problem you're facing, but it is definitely a part of it." Fred summarized. Ruby snapped her head up to look at the psychiatrist.

As the session kicked into high gear, Weiss found herself talking less and less as Ruby talked more and more. Somehow, Ruby was getting along quite well with Fred, despite the rocky start and Weiss felt a little left out.

Weiss didn't have any complaints, considering she didn't have to do or say anything but she started to wonder exactly why it bothered her that she felt like a fly on the wall of Ruby's session. Then something she heard Ruby say sparked an awareness of something that should have been much more obvious.

"I think I have it." She breathed to herself. Fred fell silent, turning to look at her.

"Then tell us! What is it that you found out?" Fred asked excitedly, typing on his wrist again.

Weiss took a moment to organize her feelings and thoughts into a coherent sentence as Ruby looked at her curiously. She flexed her hands in nervousness before pulling Ruby's round out of her pocket and roll it between her fingers as she examined it.

Both Fred and Ruby were patient as they waited for Weiss to say what she'd come up with. Ruby seemed to bounce a little in her seat as she watched Weiss's hand spin the bullet back and forth.

"Well, I guess it took me so long because I've never really had to deal with that stuff before…" Weiss started. She held the round sideways in front of her and made a small glyph to hold it up. She watched it float in front of her for a moment before continuing. "Ruby, isn't it funny that the one with the deadly weapon has more control over her violent side than the one who's semblance is primarily for defense?"

"Ummm…" Ruby didn't know how to answer the question, not realizing Weiss had meant it to be rhetorical.

"Our team, Ruby, is the first time I felt like I had family. Real family, not like how my parents were." Weiss clarified. "Claude was about the closest thing I had from before, but he was an employee. I know he cared for me, and I'd like to believe I reciprocated, but I had always looked at him like an object."

"And what has changed your perspective of things?" Fred asked, prompting Weiss to continue on.

"Ruby." Weiss answered simply. "At first I saw her as this troublesome, little, annoying, and jumpy girl that only wanted to prove herself. I was right."

"Hey!" Ruby pouted.

"But she became my first friend, and later, girlfriend. I started to see things more her way, how even the most annoying habits contributed to a person's personality." Weiss continued, ignoring Ruby. "And I finally realize how much more Ruby should hate me than she does. I've killed so many people, I can't even count them on my hands. They all had friends, or family, that cared for them in one way or another like I care for Ruby. And I destroyed them like I would crumple a ruined page of an essay I was writing. Because I saw them as objects."

She took a moment as she noticed the slight drain on her energy from suspending the bullet. She used the moment as an excuse to calm her breathing as she had a feeling she might start to panic from talking about her worst aspects. But Ruby needed to hear her say this and she'd be damned if she didn't give absolutely everything to fix things between them. She would feel far worse if she didn't.

"When Ruby told me I scared her, it was because I 'didn't even blink.'" Weiss said, reminding Ruby of her words. "It wasn't that I did it without a care, it was because of the reasoning behind how I thought about the situation. I thought kill them and they won't get in our way again. They might as well be Grimm in disguise. A simple solution. But I realize that what I wasn't thinking of was what killing them would do to others."

Ruby nodded her support, getting up and crouching in front of Weiss, her hand placed gently interlocking with Weiss's on her lap. Fred had stopped taking notes and was watching the interaction with a smile ghosting his lips.

"I hadn't given it much thought before, but I don't think I'd be able to stand losing you, Ruby. And given the things I've done, I've almost definitely forced that onto someone, somewhere." Weiss said sadly as she let her tears leak down her face. The imagined images of Ruby that had brought her to her breakthrough shocked her more than she could even express. All she could do was hold Ruby's hand and hope she understood that not for the first time and hopefully not the last, she'd changed into something slightly better than her old self.

"By George, I think she's got it!" Fred said into the silence, causing both girls to laugh at his outdated statement. "Let's call it a day. Ruby?"

"Yeah?" Ruby asked as she stood up. Her hand didn't leave contact with Weiss's.

"I believe that resolves your problem with Weiss as well, yes?" Fred asked as he scanned his notes quickly.

"Yeah, it does for now." Ruby said with a smile, pulling Weiss to the exit.

"Thank you Fred." Weiss called over her shoulder as Fred gave a lazy salute before they exited.

Weiss took the dust and her weapon back from the nurse, placing everything back in its place in her pouch. She finished double checking that everything was in the right place when Ruby put her hand on her shoulder.

"Weiss?" She asked quietly so the nurse wouldn't hear.

"Yes, Ruby?" Weiss answered, turning to face her best friend.

"I'm not saying there won't be times when you have to kill, but I just wanted to make sure that you understand what it's like when something like that happens. I was afraid that you didn't understand the effect that actions like that cause." Ruby said like she was apologizing.

"Ruby, no apologies." Weiss said, leaning close to her girlfriend so their lips were mere millimeters apart. "I'll think of what I realized today whenever I'm presented with a situation like that…. I want to be a better person for you."

Ruby smiled and closed her eyes as she leaned in to kiss Weiss. Weiss loved the feel of Ruby's lips and found herself smiling as Ruby pulled away.

"I do feel bad about all this, though. How about I buy lunch?" Ruby offered, jumping back into her usual bouncy and energetic self.

"First, I have as close to infinite money as you can get, so no need. Second, I think we could both use a long hot shower first." Weiss said, noticing now more than ever the toll that the session in the small room with bad air circulation had had on the two of them.

"I love your dirty mind!" Ruby replied with a grin as she took Weiss's hand.

"Ruby! You know that's not what I meant!" Weiss answered loudly just in case the nurse had overheard the last part.

"Sure, sure." Ruby agreed, not very seriously. Then she whispered the last few words. "I already know you won't say no."

* * *

Ruby and Weiss walked in silence. It was almost like they'd gone back to when everything was still good between them. Weiss was feeling like like she'd won the lottery… well, at least how she imagined she'd feel if she won and didn't have all the money she'd ever need at her fingertips to begin with. Ruby was looking around at everything they passed in her usual manner, occasionally spinning Weiss around as she went to look at something in the window of a shop.

Ruby ran around Weiss without dropping her hand and Weiss had to turn to avoid being pulled to the ground.

"Ruby!" Weiss said in exasperation that got Ruby's attention, if only for a second. "Can we just walk normally?"

Ruby seemed a little put down by the request but nodded nonetheless. Weiss sighed at how she always seemed to come across as a killjoy. _I don't like being the bad guy._ She thought as she let go of Ruby's hand to wrap her arm around the girl's shoulder.

"How about we get some cookies on the way home?" Weiss couldn't believe that it would help anything, but at the mention of her favourite food, Ruby perked up. _Honestly! You're no better than a dog sometimes!_

"That sounds great, but how about we get stuff so we can make them ourselves? Homemade are always better." Ruby said as if explaining the obvious to a child.

"I wouldn't know. I've never had homemade cookies before." Weiss said, continuing the conversation because it was rare that she could change Ruby's focus away from anything, never mind the decorated shops around them that advertised post Christmas clearance sales.

Ruby stopped mid-step, pulling Weiss to a halt. If her jaw dropped any further, Weiss swore it would have embedded itself firmly in the ground as she looked on at Weiss with tears slowly welling up in her eyes.

"What? What is it?" Weiss asked, starting to panic, thinking that she'd said something wrong and hadn't realized it.

"You…" Ruby started, her voice thick with emotion. Just as suddenly she switched gears. She smiled at Weiss and pulled her into a tight hug. "We are fixing this crime against your culinary palate!"

Weiss pulled out of the hug and Ruby wiped the water from her eyes. Weiss couldn't believe she'd been pulled in by the girl but had to give her credit. "Points for using 'culinary palate' in the correct manner."

"Really? Awesome!" Ruby cheered. She pumped a fist in the air as she often did when she was excited. "Can I redeem those tonight?"

Weiss looked back at Ruby quickly who raised her eyebrows suggestively. Weiss couldn't believe it but she already had her mouth open to answer.

Suddenly, the air was torn with the wailing of an enormous siren. In the distance church bells rang, clanging above the siren. Weiss looked past Ruby at the store they were passing that just happened to have a working TV on display.

On the screen, the movie cut out to be replaced by bright red lettering on a black background.

 _Grimm Attack. All civilians to evacuate South. All Hunters/Huntresses to report to North Vale._

Weiss watched as the screen proceeded to give an elaborate map of Vale with highlighted areas that were being evacuated. Ruby seemed to notice what Weiss was looking at and turned, scanning the map before it switched back to the words.

"We have to go." Ruby said, her leader mode kicking in as she dropped Weiss's hand and drew her weapon so she'd have it handy should she need it. Just as she took one step in the direction of the North Fortress, the audible beep of her scroll got her attention. She quickly pulled it out and read the message that was from Ozpin. "Actually, we're going in the right direction."

She turned back the way her and Weiss had been headed and started to jog. Weiss drew her weapon, making sure she'd reloaded the cylinder with dust as she twisted it to the blue selection in case she'd need to do anything in the immediate future. Weiss jogged behind Ruby as they turned a corner and came to a stop in front of a familiar dust shop. It was already past closing time and the shop owner had drawn bars over the windows to guard against robbery.

"Why are we here?" Weiss asked. As she looked around at the deserted street.

"Ozpin sent you a message too." Ruby answered. She shook her scroll at Weiss before attaching it to her weapon so she could monitor her team's vital statistics in the coming fight.

"I hardly think you'll need to read it now." Ozpin said as he came walking out of an alley with Glynda at his heels. "Port and Oobleck?"

"At the school along with the first years." Glynda responded as she flipped through pages of information flying across her scroll. "The main force has engaged. So far there have been sixty casualties. Fourty seven confirmed KIA."

"Unfortunate." Ozpin sighed as students Weiss had seen in the halls of beacon started showing up. After a minute or so, Yang and Blake came around the corner and joined up with their team. Jaune was hot on their tails with his team following close behind. Ozpin looked around at the gathering and decided everyone was there, so he started speaking. "In the message team leaders received, there was a group number. Group one will be led to the front lines with myself. Glynda will lead Group two to the fall-back location. Group two will be primarily helping civilians evacuate so the front line can withdraw. This is not training. There is a very real possibility that some of you may not survive past the next few hours. The Grimm will not hesitate to kill you. Prove your time at Beacon has not been wasted. Move out!"

Ozpin raced into another alley and Ruby followed, not saying a word to her teammates. She pulled out a third magazine that Weiss had given her that held the special explosive rounds that she'd used to decimate the Grimm before. She made sure it was full before replacing it in the special pouch she'd added to her waist for the special clip.

Yang had transformed her gauntlets and Blake had attached her ribbon to her weapon, leaving it strung over her back to keep her movement unrestricted. The team rounded a corner and found a mass of black flashing violently with colors as hunters and huntresses battled the creatures with furious, merciless attacks.

"Situation?" Ozpin shouted at one of the supporters as he froze an attacking Nevermore that had swooped within range with a bullet from a classic dust revolver, causing the creature to fall to the ground and shatter.

"Rear line. We're getting hit hard, two teams down, three out! I don't think we'll be able to hold out without more supplies!" He shouted as he reloaded his clip with practiced precision, shooting a beowolf as it came out of a nearby ally, causing it to explode in flames and run around before it met the sword of another passing hunter.

"Front line location?" Ozpin asked as he kicked a passing Boarbatusk so hard it hit a pole and ripped itself in half. Weiss was shocked by the unnatural amount of power Ozpin had used to kick the somewhat large creature but realized she'd have a better time to think about it later.

"Two blocks through these bastards!" The man replied as his team opened to give him a straight shot at a Death Stalker that was giving them hell. Three rounds smashed into the creature, first freezing a patch of its armour, then shattering it with a standard explosive round before setting the creature on fire on the inside.

Ozpin didn't say a word as he led the group into another abandoned alley. He stopped before stepping out in the next street. "I'm sure you understand that the risk of death grows higher the farther we go. You are here because you are the best at Beacon. Do not be a hero. Fight tactically. And remember, be careful of possible civilian activity."

With his few words out of the way, he ran out of the alley followed closely by the groups behind him.

Ruby and Weiss rounded the corner to see what neither had ever really been prepared for. A king Taijitu facing off with the first team as Ozpin continued past the distracted creature.

"Go! We've got this!" the older team shouted as Ruby slowed beside them. Ruby nodded and continued to run after Ozpin.

The group rounded another corner when a high pitched scream rang out from the next street over. Ozpin looked back and Ruby pointed down another alley. Ozpin gave a nod before leading the rest of the group on to the distant explosions echoing from several blocks down the street.

"Finally some action!" Yang cheered, her hair flaring like it did whenever she was seriously pumped for action. Her fists were already folded and ready to hit as a recent modification moved spikes down in front of her knuckles.

"Just remember what Ozpin said!" Ruby yelled back as they exited the alleyway into the street beyond. Two shops down, was a badly wounded hunter standing with only a shield as he attempted to fend of a pack of beowolves trying to kill both him and the mother and daughter behind him.

"Move!" He was screaming, but the mother seemed too terrified to do anything other than wrap her crying child in her arms.

Weiss saw one of the beowolves lunge for the hunter as he was distracted by the uncooperative family. She pulled up a glyph as fast as she could at the distance, giving the hunter ample time to move to take a glancing blow from the razor sharp claw.

"Reinforcements!" He almost cried as he used his shield to push the Grimm that had just attacked into its comrades. One of them tripped, allowing the hunter to decapitate it with the edge of his shield.

"What line?" Blake yelled as Yang took over the offensive with Ruby while Weiss provided cover with her glyphs.

"First, I'm the last of my squad." The man said as he picked up the stubborn woman and her child.

"Rejoin the evacuation team. We've got this covered." Blake said as she drew and threw her weapon into a small nevermore that had started to attack her team. The weapon sliced the creature almost in half before the blade came out and the creature exploded in a puff of smoke as Yang shot a round of dust at it.

The hunter nodded and ran back the way the team had come. The woman and child still terrified by the situation.

"Let's go!" Ruby yelled back to her team as she ran past the smoking corpses of the beowolves and towards the fighting farther down the street.

Weiss was the first to follow as Yang reloaded her gauntlets quickly and Blake sheathed her weapon. The group ran faster than they had when they followed Ozpin and didn't run into any difficulty with Ruby on point as they approached the noises of combat.

"Hold up!" A voice yelled from an alley and the team stopped dead as a man with an odd green suit and weapon that looked like little more than a stick pushed a button on his scroll, detonating the area in front of the girls with enough force to knock them to the ground.

As they stood up, they saw what looked like a six block crater expanding out from their position on the edge. The sounds of battle hadn't ceased, but all the houses and Grimm in the blast radius were completely vaporized.

"All clear!" The man yelled over the ringing in everyone's ears before he dashed back into the alley and disappeared.

Ruby looked around quickly at the large open mass of concrete and rubble. "Loose formation." She said as she made her way into the still smoking expanse and angled for the noise still coming from the other side.

"Ruby! Two 'o' clock!" Yang yelled, spotting a charging Boarbatusk.

"Weiss!" Ruby yelled, but Weiss was already pulling up a glyph to launch the creature in the air.

The creature's front legs flew up and Blake sent a round through the creature's soft underside. The creature squealed for a moment before dropping dead.

Across the crater, fighting teams came into view followed closely by a legion of Grimm. Ruby recognized a few of the distant figures as students by their slightly smaller stature compared to those fighting in front of them.

An unintelligible yell rang above the group and they all started sprinting back to RWBY's position. The team watched as more Grimm started to spill into the crater from almost every street that fed into the hole. A few hunters held back the more dangerous Grimm as the others continued to run.

"Fall back!" A hunter in a tattered gray uniform yelled as he passed RWBY as they provided cover fire for the retreating hunters.

Ruby saw Ozpin strike down one head of a king Taijitu before grabbing a rock off the ground and throwing it as fast as any bullet to punch a hole through a nearby Ursa. He used the momentum of his throw to change direction and retreat with the last huntress still fighting with long, thick curved blades attached to her arms by thick gauntlets.

Ruby stowed her weapon and indicated for the others to retreat. They ran back towards the road the other hunters had ran to, just as a couple of helicopters flew overhead. Their large machine guns roaring as the bullets flew into the Grimm, tearing all but the heavily armoured Death Stalkers to shreds.

The hunters cheered as the helicopters circled and started to fly away. Weiss felt a wave of dread as she looked around the sky. A massive nevermore that was easily six times the size of the large helicopter flew at breakneck speed towards the flying metal skeletons.

With a loud caw, it unleashed a volley of sharp feathers that embedded themselves in the helicopters, taking one down on the roof of a nearby building while the other spun out of control.

The hunters fell silent as the large helicopter continued to get pummeled by the deadly feathers. One feather clipped the main rotor and the whole vehicle flipped sideways.

"Move it!" One of the hunters yelled as the large metal ball filled with feathers plummeted straight towards them.

Weiss's brain kicked into overdrive for the split second before she moved. She knew the closest cover was too far, and also knew there was little chance Yang or her could make it to safety.

"Ruby! Blake! Go!" Weiss shouted as she tackled Yang into a large indentation in the ground.

Ruby grabbed Blake's hand and the couple disappeared in a flurry of rose petals. Weiss and Yang watched as the smoking metal husk fell closer and closer.

Weiss quickly pulled up two glyphs between herself and Yang, and the imminent death that they faced.

The helicopter smashed into the first glyph, shattering it into thousands of pieces as the helicopter ripped in half.

The second glyph flared bright white at the impact, but held as the bisected aircraft hit the ground hard and exploded as the unused dust rounds detonated. A large amount of debris fell on top of Weiss and Yang as Weiss struggled to keep the last glyph in place. After a moment, Weiss felt her eyes closing as even the shining hair of her teammate beside her grew dark.


	6. The Battle of Vale: Chapter 6

Ruby watched as the first glyph exploded, only succeding in tearing the falling aircraft in half. She started to run back, convinced that she could save her teammates with her incredible speed provided she pushed herself to her limits. Blake caught her shoulder with her quick reflexes as her instincts told her what Ruby was planning.

The split second it took for Ruby to turn away and brush Blake's arm off, the aircraft hit the ground and exploded, a wall of unbearable heat forcing Ruby and Blake back from the burning wreckage.

"Time to fall back!" A hunter yelled to his team as the grimm continued to pour into the crater and the nevermore circled around for another attack.

"Blake, go." Ruby ordered, looking at the wreckage and trying to find a safe way through without getting too badly burned.

"There's nothing we can do." Blake said sadly. Even though she wanted to do something, she'd seen things like this happen too many times before, and there was never anything she could do to help.

"Still, go." Ruby said, turning away from the wreckage and drawing her scythe out to its full length. She loaded the explosive rounds and took out the nevermore with three well aimed shots. "Tell Ozpin I'm done being team leader."

"Ruby!" Blake called as Ruby ran off to meet the grimm head on with a burst of her speed.

Blake watched for a moment as Ruby didn't simply kill, but slaughtered the grimm. The row of bodies around her quickly doubled then trippled in size until she was fighting on what looked like a smoking mountain range as the creature's bodies slowly disintegrated.

Blake couldn't watch anymore and followed the other hunters, maybe they'd be able to do something, anything, to help.

* * *

Yang felt the heavy rubble from the street and nearby buildings slowly crushing her and Weiss who'd up until just now, kept them safe with her glyphs. Apparently it was a bigger drain than the girl had thought because now she lay pressed against Yang, unconscious.

"Hey! Ruby'll kill you if she sees you with me like this!" She shouted in the small area between her and Weiss's heads that allowed small movements without shifting the painfully heavy rock. Weiss grumbled but didn't wake. _Figures._

Yang felt her gauntlet to see if it was still in combat mode. She was thankful that it was because she hated trying to think things through. She fired a round point blank at the rubble and blasted some of it away while also giving her hand a bad burn.

Now she only had to move her hand and do it once more. She cringed as the second shot tore away the top layer of skin on her knuckles and the metal gauntlet burned hot. She ignored the pain and pulled herself and Weiss out of the rubble quickly before it decided to collapse completely. The raging fire around them made Yang feel like she had stepped into hell, especially since the air was cold for a typical winter day in Vale.

She dragged her teammate to a nearby rock that might have been part of a building at one point. She was still close enough to the fire that they'd be warm but not close enough to split like sausages after a few minutes. She checked her scroll. Weiss's aura was as far into the red zone as she'd ever seen it and hers wasn't much better. What surprised her was Ruby's slowly jumping lower every few seconds.

"-ng" Weiss breathed a shuddering breath as she fumbled at her waist.

"What is it?" Yang asked, looking down at the broken girl as she tried to open her pocket. She succeeded and pulled out a single vial of dust.

"Don't aim close…" Weiss breathed through gritted teeth. "Get Ruby…"

"Sure thing." Yang took the unfamiliar dust and quickly loaded a shell and placed it in the last chamber of her undamaged hand.

"Over there…" Weiss turned her head with a whimper of pain as she looked at the smoke blurred hill where a small silver stroke flashed back and forth.

"Right!" Yang nodded and sprinted off to save her sister.

* * *

Ruby ignored the brand new and somewhat painful scratch on her arm as she twirled her scythe, decapitating three beowolves in one swipe before flipping a boarbatusk into an advancing king taijitu. The two headed snake didn't avoid the projectile and caused one of the heads to snap back from the impact.

 _143\. There's still a ton of them. Where do they even come from?_ She wondered as she dodged a death stalker's stinger and killed one of the taijitu's heads. _I won't stop._ She told herself. She found it a sort of romantic climax to her story and would either survive by running out of grimm to kill, or die by being overrun by the horde.

She knew deep down that only the second ending would be realistic, but at this point, she didn't care. Half her team had been wiped out by these creatures and that meant she was a failure as a leader. She would go down with her ship before having to deal with the loss of her sister and girlfriend, her two best friends.

"Ahhhh!" She yelled, using all her strength as she smashed her blade into the solid armour of the death stalker. She smashed twice more, cracking the armour before puncturing it and putting the creature out of commision. A beowolf that had snuck up on her missed by a millimeter as it tried to impale her on it's thick, long claws. The second swipe wasn't as lucky as it ripped a good chunk out of Ruby's calf.

Ruby stumbled and killed the beowolf at the same time as she prepared for the last head of the taijitu to strike. Ruby aimed her sniper and pulled the trigger to hear a loud click… no explosion of the round leaving the chamber.

 _Out of rounds… well, it's been fun!_ Ruby limped onto solid ground to face off the crowd of grimm that seemed to have gotten larger rather than smaller since she started fighting as the black mass slowly closed in around her.

"Ruby! Get down!" A voice yelled from the top of the smoking hill of grimm beside her.

Ruby didn't trust her ears and looked at the top of the pile. Through the black smoke, Yang stood like a conqueror. Her fist raised and aimed at the grimm below in her battle stance.

"Yang!" Ruby couldn't find any other words to express just how surprised and relieved she was to see her.

"Talk later, Rubes. Gotta go." Yang said as she started her volley at the grimm to provide Ruby cover to climb the hill.

Yang took out any grimm stupid enough to get close to Ruby and after only a few seconds, Ruby was beside Yang on top of a death stalker husk. Ruby grabbed Yang's arm but Yang continued to fire her rounds, clearly having fun killing the evil creatures.

"Let's go!" Ruby groaned in pain as she started to descend the other side of the hill.

"Wait… one… second!" Yang grunted as she emptied her gauntlet's ammo at the grimm, drawing them into one large group at the bottom of the hill. Yang grabbed Ruby's arm and pulled her back onto the dead death stalker. "We're going surfing!"

Yang announced her intention to Ruby just as she fired the last round that literally ripped apart more than half of the grimm at the bottom of the hill before the shockwave pushed the death stalker over the side of the hill. Yang slammed her aviators on, which looked ridiculous as one of the lenses had busted out and the other one looked like it'd taken a bullet.

The dead creature stopped and Yang sprang off it, scooping up the injured Ruby as she sprinted back to where she'd left Weiss. Even across the crater, she could barely make out the humanoid shape that sat slumped in the shadow of the wreckage as the black smoke billowed around her.

"WEISS!" Ruby screamed as she saw their destination.

"Grab her up gentle, and get going, I'll cover you." Yang said, dropping Ruby to go the last few yards. She pulled two new belts of rounds out of her belt and quickly flipped them into her gauntlets. She cocked both and started laying down cover fire at the grimm that were just beginning to advance past the massive hill of their dead.

Ruby found Weiss almost unconscious. Weiss gave Ruby the single round she kept playing with during their psychiatrist visit and Ruby felt herself almost cry.

"For… luck… right?" Weiss breathed past the pain that she was obviously in. She sucked in deep breaths through her clenched teeth as her nose appeared to be broken. One of her arms and her opposite leg seemed broken as well, and her face was drenched in blood coming both from beyond her hairline and her old scar that had chosen another great time to split open. She didn't blink the blood out of her eye as if she didn't even notice it.

Ruby found herself amazed that Weiss was even alive, despite the fact she looked like a corpse. She didn't say anything, she just picked her girlfriend up and placed a gentle kiss on a part of her face she prayed wasn't hurt.

"Okay, let's go!" Ruby called over her shoulder as she started to jog awkwardly with the additional weight and her injured leg. Weiss quickly slipped back into unconsciousness as the bouncing of Ruby's jog and her extreme exhaustion coupled with her blood loss pulled her into sleep.

* * *

Yang watched as Ruby moved as quickly as possible toward the stronghold. Yang was fending off the creatures as best she could, but at this rate, her ammunition would be long gone before she even got half way there. _Please be getting reinforcements, Blake!_

She continued fighting, pushing any hopes out of the way of reality. If need be, she might just be able to carry Weiss as long as Ruby could hold on piggy-back style without strangling her. _Who am I kidding? I'm not that strong!_

She shook the one thought that kept reoccuring that she'd dump Weiss and save Ruby if she had the choice. Ruby would never forgive her for that one, she knew, and it would result in her committing suicide by grimm as evidenced by the previous battle. She knew by simply looking at them that the two really loved each other, but she had been raised differently than Ruby. What Ruby and Weiss had was great, but it was also not what should happen. _But it can't be that wrong, if she's this happy, right?_

The circular argument swirled in her mind as she instinctively fired rounds at the grimm, stalling their advance. She decided that what she'd been taught was wrong, and her hidden personal interest that she'd been denying herself for months now came back full force as if it had always been there.

 _If I get all of us out alive, I will act on you._ She decided, not having much hope that they'd be able to get to the fall-back point before they were overrun with grimm. She loaded her last belt of ammo into her gauntlet.

She heard the caw of a nevermore and looked up to see three relatively small ones headed her way. She hated the small ones more than any others because they were harder to hit, but still had the same strength to tear through flesh with their beaks and claws.

She fired eight rounds before she managed to take all three down and started to regret her lack of extra ammunition. _If I get back to beacon, I'm getting bigger pockets too._

She fired the last of her rounds to cripple two deathstalkers that blocked most of the road, causing a temporary road-block until the other grimm got impatient and simply climbed over them.

"Yang!" Ruby called over the growls of the grimm as Yang backed away from them. She shot a glance over her shoulder to see five people running full tilt towards them.

"Just in time!" She called back, turning to catch up with Ruby. "I just ran out of ammo!"

"Learn to conserve!" Blake yelled as she got closer, tossing a small box at Yang. Yang flipped the lid and started putting the shells in her gauntlets. "I couldn't get any dust. All they had were slugs."

"Fine. As long as it cracks the armour on those death stalkers, I don't care!" Yang replied as she loaded the last round and tossed the empty cardboard box down in the street.

"You two, left side. You're with me on the right. Let's cross it!" The huntress said. It was obvious she was the leader of the team as the three hunters sprang into position. "You've got a block to go. We're only setting a trap before withdrawing."

She jumped to her teammate and started fiddling with a device. Yang took Weiss from Ruby gently, reassuring her that she'd be gentle. Blake let Ruby jump on her back and together they ran back to the fall-back point.

They rounded a corner and Yang gasped. A makeshift wall of what looked to be mostly metal scrap was erected. In the side was a small door, big enough for one person to get through while crouched. A man looking over the top yelled down to someone hidden on the other side and they opened the door, pushing a stretcher through.

A loud explosion echoed from around the corner as the assistance team came sprinting towards the door.

Yang placed Weiss down quickly, but was careful not to bump her head as the stretcher was pulled in. Ruby followed after jumping down from Blake and then the team that had set the explosives ran in followed closely by Blake and at last Yang.

"It is nice to see you all alive considering the reports of your deaths." Ozpin said in greeting as he passed papers to a man standing beside him and pointed to another who was waiting for his attention. "We don't have any to spare." He told the man who walked away grumpily. "You may return to Beacon where we have set up a temporary hospital in the sparring gyms."

Ruby nodded to him and followed the white clothed man pushing Weiss away down the street. As she walked past Ozpin, he stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

"Your team did an excellent job today, Ruby. You should be proud." He smiled and let her go. She continued walking as he turned back to the crowd of people around him.

Yang and Blake followed in silence for several blocks until the long ramp started to take them up the side of the cliffs.

"Blake?" Yang asked, looking at the faunus beside her. Her ribbon had been replaced in her hair to hide her ears and her weapon was slung over her back carefully.

"Yes?" Blake responded, not looking back as she continued to watch Ruby walk beside Weiss as if nothing had happened. "I guess they stopped fighting now."

"Huh? Oh, yeah… I guess." Yang replied. Blake sure wasn't making this easy. "Well, anyhow, I sort of promised myself I'd do something if everyone survived."

"Really?" Blake asked, her tone making it very clear she wanted no part of it, whatever it was.

"Don't worry. It's not something stupid like normal." Yang said with a nervous laugh.

"It wouldn't be you if it wasn't stupid." Blake shot back, still not looking at her teammate.

Yang couldn't figure out what to say to that, so she just said nothing. The two walked in that silence until they were almost at the top of the ramp. Yang reached out and grabbed Blake's hand to stop her. Finally, Blake turned to look at her teammate.

"You know, all this time I've been wondering if what Ruby and Weiss are doing is okay." Yang said, looking for an answer in Blake's eyes and not finding one. "But I don't see why I have to take what my mother taught me for most of my life as the only way things can happen. Do you know what I mean?"

Blake was silent as she pondered Yang's statement. "Well, I know your family adopted Ruby very young, and your mother left not long afte. So I assume there were things that you were taught that she wasnt."

"Nail on the head, like always." Yang smiled at how easy it was to tell Blake anything… well, almost anything. "Mom was about as racist and righteous as they come. Anti-faunus, anti-gay… she'd lay an egg if she knew what Ruby was doing."

"Well, I know that you got over my being a faunus pretty quickly." Blake stated, thinking back to when it had been revealed during a fight with Weiss.

"Yeah, well, I never agreed with that one even one percent." Yang said with a shrug. "But I never could convince myself that the gay thing didn't matter either, you know?"

"The usual argument over love verses procreation." Blake stated, having read extensive material on the matter in the library just out of curiosity and lack of other materials to read.

"Yeah… that. What do you think?" Yang asked, looking at Blake as if she might be able to tell if she was lying, which she wouldn't.

"I'd like to think that there is someone that I love out there. I don't very much care if it's a man or woman." Blake answered in her usual vague manner.

"I couldn't have said it better myself." Yang smiled, taking a step closer to Blake. "I also wanted to see if you felt the same way."

"Oh…" Blake started to turn away but Yang reached out and guided her head gently so they were looking into each other's eyes.

"I promised myself that if we all got out alive, I'd kiss you…" Yang whispered so quietly that Blake only picked it up with her faunus abilities.

"Okay…" Blake whispered her response as her eyes fluttered closed.

Yang leaned in carefully, not wanting to ruin the calm atmosphere by rushing. She felt Blake's breath on her lips and closed the space as gently as she could.

At first nothing happened. The two simply stood with their soft lips pressed together. Then Yang started to move and Blake mirrored her, deepening their kiss until they broke apart gasping for air.

"That was the best kiss I've had in a long time." Blake said with a smile.

"Oh, not the best kiss ever?" Yang mock pouted, jumping back into her normal routine with the cat faunus.

"Fine, but you better not tell anyone about us." Blake said threateningly.

"Why? What's wrong if people know?" Yang asked, completely confused by Blake's one-eighty from her earlier statements.

"I didn't say people shouldn't know, I told you not to tell them. I'm sure they'll put two and two together when they see us swapping spit before class." Blake joked. "And if they can't figure it out I guess I'll let you slap some stupid out of them."

"Well, good to know I'm the muscle and not the brains in this relationship." Yang commented, not knowing how she was supposed to take Blake's comment.

"Trust me, any relationship where you're the brains is destined to crash and burn." Blake laughed at Yang's pout as they continued toward Beacon to find the rest of their team.

"You forgot the mushroom cloud. Ka-booooooom!" Yang commented while making an explosion noise and miming an explosion with her hands.

"Yes. Yes I did." Blake shook her head and looped her arm through Yang's.

"Lets go out tomorrow." Yang said hopefully. "You know, if there's anything in Vale that hasn't been levelled by then."

"Sure. And if the city is levelled, we can always have some fun hunting." Blake smiled as she cracked her stiff neck.

"Kitty's acting like a tiger. Rawr!" Yang laughed, reaching up and scratching Blake's ears.

Blake let loose a loud purr that surprised her and made Yang smile even wider. She felt her face grow red in embarasement and she looked straight ahead, not really seeing where they were walking.

Yang leaned in close to Blake's ear and whispered. "I think that was the sexiest thing I've ever heard."

Blake ignored Yang for the next few minutes as the blush slowly left her face. When Beacon finally came into view at the top of the cliff, Blake pulled Yang away from the main path, guiding her across the lawn to a bench that looked out over all of Vale.

They sat down and looked at the decimated city in the setting sun. Orange fires glowed in the distance from bonfires that were surrounded by civilians and in the farther area past the barricade, a wall of flame was slowly making its way across the farthest edge of the city. The abandoned part of the city looked like it had been bombed out. Large craters pocked the normal cityscape and small fires burned here and there around smoke flares that were just dying down. Yang was almost convinced she recognized one of those as the helicopter that had almost killed her.

"I just have one question." Blake sighed as she looked in dismay at the disaster zone. "After everything that happened with our aura, why didn't we go anywhere?"

"Well, we're sort of stuck in school." Yang replied quickly. She was afraid that Blake would ask her that question, and wasn't necessarily ready to answer it.

Blake looked over at Yang, her eyes narrowed. "You know I didn't mean travel." Her tone left no room for argument as she paid carefull attention to Yang.

Yang sighed and closed her eyes to the setting sun, letting out a long breath. "I guess the short answer is that I was afraid to go any farther than we already had."

"You've been sleeping on that couch for a month." Blake pointed out with a little bit of a laugh in her voice. "I thought you just didn't like me that way after all."

Yang smiled at the thought of how her grades had improved drastically after she started to get up early on a daily basis. Her temporary happiness disappeared as she was once again faced with the reason she was forced to sleep on the dreadful piece of furniture.

"It's not really…" Yang started and stopped. "It's just that…. God, this is hard…. I guess I just couldn't get it out of my head that it's not supposed to be like this. That _we're_ not supposed to be like this."

"Oh…" Blake looked crestfallen at Yang's words.

"But back there I realized something." Yang said, looking out at the fire she thought might be the burning helicopter. "I thought I was going to die when I saw the helicopter come down… I would have too if Weiss hadn't saved me. And in that final split second before Weiss tackled me… all I could think of was how stupid I've been. And seeing how Weiss and Ruby are when they're together… I couldn't help but wonder why I was wasting my time and my chances."

Blake felt a tear come rolling out of her eye as she watched Yang staring out at the sunset. Somehow she felt like Yang was finally opening up to her the way she'd been hoping she would for the past month. She was so happy that she couldn't think of anything to say in response.

Yang turned to see Blake's smile. Tears were running down her face as she tentatively reached her hand out to Yang. Yang took Blake's hand in her own and leaned forward.

"I'm so, so sorry that it took my almost dying to slap away my stupidity…" Yang appologized, her eyes locked directly with her teammate's. "And I promise that if you give me a chance, I will make it up to you however I can, for every day I made you think I didn't like you."

Blake couldn't speak so she just nodded her response and Yang sealed the deal with a kiss that was rather salty. After several moments, Blake was back to normal and Yang seemed to have grown an inch like she was just bursting with happiness.

"We should go check on the rest of our team." Blake said, remembering the horrible state Weiss had been in after saving Yang.

"I guess I better start repaying Weiss for saving my ass, huh?" Yang chuckled as they walked back to Beacon hand in hand.

"That might be a good idea, but I have a feeling Ruby's got everything covered." Blake responded, enjoying the feel of Yang's hand in hers.


	7. The Battle of Vale: Chapter 7

Weiss sat in her hospital bed, her arm in a sling and her leg in an elevated cast. The doctor had told her she'd broken her leg in eight places and her arm was fractured in three, but they were all above her elbow so they couldn't cast it.

Her nurse had commented that she was extremely lucky that her head injury had just been enough to break the skin, but not damage her skull. The nurse seemed to squeal when Weiss replied with a smile. _These people are strange._

Ruby sat asleep in a chair at her bedside, having refused to leave even for a few hours of sleep in her own bed. Weiss watched her slow breathing for a few minutes before she pulled her scroll open.

She was amazed, and at the same time thankful that the news network was still up despite the massive catastrophe. She looked at the articles with accompanying videos. On the top shot, the first frame of the video looked oddly familiar. She opened the article and was shocked to see the headline.

 _Heiress Heroine._ She shook her head as she turned off the volume to watch the video. It was only a three second clip where she tackled Yang and pulled up glyphs as the helicopter's carcass slammed into them and exploded so violently, Weiss felt obligated to thank whatever gods there might be that she was still alive.

She scanned the short article. Most of it was just a biography of her life. Raised in White Castle, home-schooled, accepted to Beacon, a member of the number one first year team, and part of Ozpin's hand selected teams to assist the front line in the evacuation effort.

She closed the article and scanned the others. Most seemed to be reporting on various problems facing Vale. One was on how the refugee situation would affect the residents of southern Vale, another was on the temporary martial law that was put in effect to ensure the safety of the remaining part of Vale. The one that caught her eye was the third one from the bottom of the page that announced the death toll of the previous night's operations. She opened it and slowly read each line so as not to miss anything.

 _The mayor of the City of Vale has released the official numbers for the casualties that took place last night when the Grimm attacked in force on an unprepared northern Vale. These numbers read as follows:_

 _158 Hunters and Huntresses have been listed as Confirmed, Killed in Action. 7 of which were in attendance at Beacon Academy._

 _245 Hunters and Huntresses have been listed as Missing, believed Killed in Action._

 _683 Hunters and Huntresses have been listed as Wounded in Action. 39 of which are in attendance at Beacon Academy._

 _12,869 Civilians have been confirmed missing, and are believed to have been killed during evacuation efforts. This number is expected to increase in the coming days as the remaining population is accounted for._

 _From all of us here at Vale News Network, we would like to thank from the bottom of our hearts the close to 2,000 Hunters and Huntresses that fought valiantly for our safety. Without their sacrifice, we would not be publishing this sad article. Thank you._

 _The names of each individual missing or killed may be found on our homepage along with the new laws that were passed to avoid disaster in the coming weeks._

Weiss stared at the numbers. _13,000 killed… how is that acceptable?_ She pushed the thought from her brain as she saw the number of hunters that had showed to fight. Only 2,000 to protect 25 times that number in civilians who were likely unarmed.

She snapped out of her thoughts as she noticed Ruby starting to stir. She closed her scroll and set it aside as Ruby opened her eyes and looked at Weiss in the bed. They stared at each other for a few moments before Ruby coughed to clear her throat from her sleep.

It didn't help much because her voice was still gravelly as she spoke. "Weiss, I thought Yang died. I thought you died. I'm sorry."

Ruby started crying and she turned away from Weiss so she wouldn't see. Weiss couldn't have cared less and waited for her sobs to trail away. She reached for her scroll and opened the first article with the video and loaded it.

"Ruby, I don't blame you. Look here." She held the scroll so Ruby would have to get closer to see. Ruby's curiosity got the better of her and she leaned in.

Weiss hit the play button on the three second video and watched Ruby. She flinched as the wreckage hit and the fireball flew skyward, the video stopped and Weiss closed the device and put it away.

" _I'm_ even surprised I'm alive." Weiss admitted with a small smile and Ruby half-laughed and half-cried as she lay her head on the side of Weiss's bed.

"Why did you do that?" Ruby asked, her voice muffled by the mattress.

"Because believe it or not, I like Yang." Weiss answered, ruffling Ruby's hair to get her to look up. "Also, I wouldn't forgive myself if I didn't do anything. Yang might be tough, but she's not that tough."

Ruby smiled and carefully leaned over Weiss. Their lips met in a short and tender kiss before Ruby pulled away, careful not to bump Weiss's arm or leg.

"So, how long are you in here for?" Ruby asked while leaning back in her chair. "I'm sure the fan-girl outside would be happy if you never left."

"I wish I could get out of here, but it'll be a few days at the least. I have eight breaks and three fractures to fix." Weiss sighed, closing her eyes. She hated having to fix breaks with aura. It was just too much energy sometimes.

Ruby was silent for a long time and Weiss felt herself start to drift back to sleep as she slowly used what aura she could spare to start the repair to her arm which posed a larger problem in her eyes.

Weiss opened her eyes to see it was evening and her dinner was sitting cold as ice on the nightstand. Weiss felt her arm carefully. There was no more pain and she moved it slowly as her muscles groaned in protest. She took off the sling and folded it before setting it aside. _One problem down. Eight to go._

She wasn't hungry so she left her dinner alone. She watched as Ruby flipped through a book. She hadn't noticed Weiss was awake again. And Weiss watched as Ruby thumbed the pages backwards and forwards every few seconds, a frown on her face.

"Ruby, what's wrong?" Weiss asked. She didn't like to see Ruby looking like that.

"Nothing…" Ruby replied, putting her book down and noticing Weiss had both arms back in working order. "You should eat something and try to start on that leg."

"I know you well enough to tell that something is wrong." Weiss persisted. "And my leg can wait. It's not going to walk off anywhere, after all."

Ruby cringed at the horrible joke but put a smile on for Weiss's benefit. "Funny. But you don't have to worry about it."

"Ruby, when are you going to get it through that thick skull of yours that we have to share our problems to fix them?" Weiss asked. She was quickly running out of patience with Ruby's evasive attitude.

"Fine! I failed!" Ruby said loudly as she gave up to Weiss's pestering.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Weiss asked slowly. She didn't really understand where Ruby was coming from, but it seemed strange for the always-confident Ruby to doubt herself.

"I failed as a leader. You and Yang both almost died, and I gave up. I sent Blake back and decided to take on the Grimm single handedly!" Ruby breathed heavily as the emotions of the previous night came crashing back. "I was ready to die! I actually wanted to, Weiss! Hell, I even ran out of ammo a few seconds before Yang showed!"

Weiss thought about it for a minute but pushed the idea of Ruby dying out of her head. She had enough pain to deal with physically. She didn't need mental anguish on top of that.

"I saved Yang. Just as I intended to. Blake came back with reinforcements, and Yang saved both of us after I passed out from using so much aura." Weiss recapped her version of the events for Ruby. "As far as I'm concerned, you were buying Yang and myself time to escape from under the wreckage."

"But you don't understand-" Ruby started, but Weiss cut her off.

"No, I understand perfectly. That's why I want you to listen to me carefully." Weiss waited and Ruby nodded slowly. "Good… you saved us even though it might not have been your initial intention. As the leader of the team you made the decision to send Blake away. You knew that she wouldn't leave well enough alone, even if you weren't thinking about it at the time. You also forgot how amazingly smart I am when it comes to physics and how amazingly skilled your sister is at surviving things that probability says should kill her. You did the one thing that very few people at Beacon could have pulled off without getting killed. You kept an army of Grimm busy, single-handedly I might add, while we were all off trying to get our acts together."

Ruby thought about Weiss's words and the more she thought, the more she saw her point. She had told Blake to leave, but thinking about it now, Blake wouldn't have gone if she didn't see a way to help her team. She also had to admit that Yang's ability to survive anything was bordering on godly at this point. She also knew that out of the whole team, Weiss was the one who thought best under pressure. Although she wasn't convinced that Weiss had predicted the outcome of her attempt to save Yang.

She let out a long sigh and nodded at Weiss. "Looking back, I guess it's easier to see it all in a different light…"

"Exactly. Even though you might not have been thinking straight, you still did exactly what you needed to do. And because of that, we're all safe now. It's the same thing that started our trouble on Christmas. Perspective." Weiss said, hoping to solidify her reasoning into Ruby's mind. Ruby smiled and got up.

"Thanks, Weiss. You should rest now, though. I'm sure you want to get your leg fixed." Weiss nodded slowly as Ruby walked to the door of the room. "I'm going back to the room to clean up. I'll be back in a bit."

"Okay. Bye." Weiss said as she watched Ruby. "And Ruby?"

"Yeah?" She asked, pausing half way out the door.

"I love you." Weiss said with a smile.

"I love you too. Now get fixing!" Ruby shook her finger at her but smiled as she left.

* * *

"Oh God!" Ruby spun on her heel and slammed the door to her dorm shut. _I soooo didn't need to see that!_ She thought as she walked across the hall to knock on JNPR's door.

"Sup?" Ren asked as he opened the door. Upon noticing the lack of color in Ruby's face, he added "are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah… just don't go to my dorm right now." Ruby said as she walked into the dorm to find Nora bouncing on a bed. "Isn't that Jaune's bed, Nora?"

"Yup! Pyrrha said Jaune was complaining about the springs so I said I could fix them and she wasn't sure if I should but I said no problem and now I'm going to fix them by jumping on them!" Nora explained as if talking to a little kid. She put on her noise canceling headphones and continued to jump in time to the song she'd been listening to.

"Um… wouldn't that-" Ruby started to respond when she was suddenly cut off.

"Don't bother. I already tried." Ren explained as he sat back down at the desk and picked up a book. "Jaune and Pyrrha went to get food, if you want to stay I'm sure there will be enough for one more."

"No thanks… I was actually wondering if I could use your bathroom since mine is on the other side of a no-go zone right now." Ruby said casually.

"Go ahead. Just leave it how you found it since it's Nora's turn to clean it." Ren said. Ruby gave him a questioning look and he sighed. "That means Nora will make me do it since she's allergic to the cleaner we have."

"Gotcha." Ruby walked into the bathroom and turned to shut the door. "And thanks Ren… I know it was you who got Ozpin to organize our extraction."

Ren nodded and Ruby shut the door. She didn't have a change of clothes or a towel, so there was a limit as to what she could do, but she tried her best, washing her face and wiping down the rest of the places that felt like they were growing a crust of dirt. After twenty minutes and a check to make sure she cleaned up after herself, she exited the washroom to find that JNPR had made her a plate of chicken and fries. She sat down on Jaune's bed to eat. Jaune and Pyrrha were eating next to each other on Pyrrha's bed, and Ren was feeding Nora from across the room, who was determined to play catch the fry.

"Thanks for the food." Ruby said to the room at large, not knowing who had paid for it.

"Don't worry about it." Jaune replied with a shrug as he ripped another chunk off his chicken leg.

"Yeah, it would have just gone in the Nora anyways." Ren said as he tossed a fry.

"Hey!" Nora lost track of the fry from Ren's comment and it smacked into her forehead and bounced to the floor. Nora looked at the fry for a moment before striking a comical pose, clutching her heart. "I've been hit!" She collapsed on the ground to the laughter of Pyrrha as Ren sighed.

"Are you going to eat that?" Jaune asked Ren, pointing to the plate he was holding.

"Go ahead, that's Nora's-"

"HEY!" Nora yelled from the floor causing Jaune to laugh and even Ren cracked a grin as Nora popped up off the ground.

"Is this how you guys always are?" Ruby asked as she calmed down from her giggles.

"Only on Thursdays and every third day of every eight months!" Nora responded immediately.

"And pretty much every other day of the week." Pyrrha said, throwing a fry that Nora dove to catch in her mouth.

"Got it!" She popped up in a victory stance.

"It's a good change from classes and fighting." Jaune explained. "We all just relax and have fun for a while before we get back to studying. It helps get all the extra energy out so we can focus."

Throughout Jaune's explanation, Nora was standing at attention like a soldier and nodding seriously. When Jaune turned back, she started whistling and ran back to Ren's bed to plop down beside her boyfriend.

"On second thought, it just gets Nora's energy down to a manageable level." Jaune corrected before returning to his food.

"Come on, guys. I'm not _that_ high energy! I do sleep after all! Most of the time at least!" Nora said when nobody said anything to Jaune's statement.

"And what a blessed time that is!" Pyrrha laughed to Nora's frown.

"You guys are mean!" Nora pouted, crossing her arms.

"Nora." Ren said to get her attention. He was holding out her plate to her.

"Nope. You're mean, so you have to feed me." Nora said, sticking her nose up in the air like she was royalty.

"Very well, Queen Nora. Wouldst thou likest thy leg off thy chicken?" Ren asked, forcing his voice deeper than normal.

"Best one yet, Renny!" Nora chirped as she bit down on the chicken in Ren's hand.

"Well, it's been fun, but I gotta get back." Ruby said. She felt out of place in the other team's room. She gave the still half full plate to Nora who dumped it onto the plate Ren was giving her food from.

"Say hi to Weiss for us." Pyrrha said as she got up to shut the door behind Ruby.

"Sure. And thanks again for the food and letting me borrow your washroom." Ruby said as she walked out into the hall.

"Don't mention it." Jaune and Ren answered at the same time from within as Pyrrha smiled and shut the door.

From the other side a muffled groan that could only have come from Pyrrha floated into the hall. "Why is it always my plate, Nora? Why?"

 _O-kay… well, that was definitely something that would never happen in my dorm._ Ruby thought as she made her way back to the medical room Weiss was in. _I guess it's because we don't have a Nora on our team… that's probably a good thing._


	8. The Battle of Vale: Chapter 8

"I think Ruby misunderstood what was happening." Blake said as she flipped through her book. Her face was still blushing from the encounter even though it took place more than an hour previously.

"Meh… I'm sure we'll walk in on her and Weiss one of these times. Then we'll be even." Yang shrugged as she cleaned and polished her gauntlets. Parts of the metal had warped when she'd blasted out of the rubble and now she was faced with the monumental task of cutting the small pieces apart so they would go back and forth between her weapons and fashion accessories again.

"Speaking of which, did you speak to her yet?" Blake asked, turning a page.

"Naw… she was out the first time and since then Ruby's been there." Yang said. She gritted her teeth as she forced metal cutters closed over one of the broken components until it shattered and fell from the rest of the gauntlet. "I want to have a conversation about something that I don't want Ruby to hear."

"You do know that those two talk about everything, right?" Blake asked.

"Yeah, but it's better that she hears it from Weiss, not me." Yang said simply, nodding at the completed section of the gauntlet. She started on the next part that was almost completely destroyed with a sigh.

"Take a break. You've been at it all day now." Blake said with a sigh, putting down her book.

"In a bit. There's only eight more sections to do." Yang said as she shattered another piece off the complicated gear system. "Idle hands, and all that…"

"Well, if your afraid of your hands being idle, there's nothing to worry about." Blake said slyly as she came up behind Yang. "I'll find a way for those idle hands to be even more… _productive._ "

Yang let out a visible shudder at the implication as Blake ran her hand across Yang's shoulder blades.

"Just don't take too long or the offer expires." Blake said as she sat back down on the bed.

Yang continued working for all of thirty seconds before slamming her gauntlet down on the table. She seemed to be breathing heavily as if she wasn't getting enough oxygen. "Damn you and your temptress nature!" Yang spat loudly as she clenched her hands into fists.

She pushed herself up and walked over to the bed. She threw her other gauntlet that was fully repaired onto the table that held Blake's book. Blake patted the bed seductively and Yang sat down, pinning Blake to the bed and looking down at the smiling girl.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Yang asked carefully as she held herself back. It was incredibly hard for her to restrain herself, but she didn't want to screw things up when she'd finally fixed them.

Blake smiled in response. "I've been sure since over a month ago." Blake reached her head up and caught Yangs lips with her own. Yang followed her back down to the bed.

Their lips pressed together, mirroring their bodies as their tongues battled for dominance. Yang undid the bow in Blake's hair and tossed it to the side as she ran her hand down the cat ears that the bow covered. Blake shuddered at the intimate contact and her hands shot up from their places at her side. One hand tangled itself in Yang's hair and the other held Yang's waist close. Blake could feel Yang's intense body heat radiating out of her like she had a fire just below her skin.

Yang ran her fingers down Blake's hair from her cat ears to her human ones, following the hair and stopping when her hand was on the bed beside Blake. The two focused on kissing, Blake using her hand to push Yang into kissing her even deeper than ever before.

The kiss finally broke as both girls desperately needed breath. "I love you." Yang gasped, peppering Blake's neck with tiny kisses that made her purr in pleasure.

"I… hmmm… love you too." Blake replied, still pulling Yang closer as her body arched into Yang.

"You have the most adorable purr." Yang said as she continued her kisses, pleased that Blake was loving it as much as she was.

"You're wearing too much." Blake stated, causing Yang to stop.

"Well, I guess that's all for today." Yang said as she took Blake's hand out of her hair and made to get up.

Blake was lightning fast, pinning Yang to the bed before leaning in close. "You didn't let me finish. You're wearing too much, so let me help you fix that." She leaned down to Yang and kissed her gently, intentionally bringing her knee up to press against Yang's groin.

Yang let out a loud moan and shifted slightly. She nodded as she bit her lip and Blake went to work slowly taking off each article of her girlfriend's clothing. First to go was the shirt and bra that were probably two sizes too small to fit Yang. Blake paid more attention as she lifted the bra, making sure to drag the material over Yang's firm nipples.

Yang inhaled deeply at the ever so slight contact, but kept her arms where Blake had left them. She knew Blake would appreciate the gesture and really wanted to make Blake feel like her partner in every sense of the word.

Blake slowly undid the button and zipper on Yang's jeans, making Yang squirm slightly even as she resisted letting her impatience show. Blake pulled the denim down and off, marveling at the beautiful legs Yang had. The pink underwear that matched the bra were visibly damp and Blake didn't waste time, knowing hers were probably just as, if not more wet than Yang's. She slipped her fingers around each side and slid them off, dropping them to the floor where they joined the rest of the pile of clothes.

Blake moved back up Yang's body slowly, admiring the toned muscle with her hands as she traced lazy lines up from Yang's navel to her large breasts to her shoulders and up her arms until her fingers interlocked with Yang's.

Yang felt exposed lying the way she was with not a scrap of clothing on, but at the same time didn't care as long as it was only Blake in the room. She was just a little embarrassed that she was the only one with a lack of clothing.

Blake leaned down and kissed Yang gently as she ever so slightly moved her body up and down, rubbing her clothing across Yang's skin, making Yang feel as if her skin would burn off if it continued any longer.

Without missing a beat, Yang flipped Blake over and broke the kiss with a smile as she carefully pulled the girl's nightshirt off. Blake wasn't wearing a bra underneath and Yang was immediately treated to a view of her slightly smaller breasts. Yang knew she'd make sure they were well tended to before they were done and moved down to take off Blake's pants. Blake's underwear went with them to the pile on the floor and Yang jumped back to Blake to ravage her mouth once more.

As they kissed, Blake explored Yang's chest with her hands, massaging her breasts and brushing the sensitive tips with her fingertips. Yang mirrored her movements and Blake felt herself melt as her purr changed from intermittent to constant.

Yang's leg moved up and started to rub at Blake's core and Blake responded, shifting herself into a better position so she could enjoy the movements more and use her leg to do the same to Yang.

Yang moaned loudly at the sudden contact and started moving faster as she slid her core up and down Blake's leg, covering it with the wetness that was almost pouring forth.

Blake knew she was getting close to the edge and made sure to press into Yang as much as she could as they panted for breath and continued to ride each other to climax. Blake shuddered and felt similar vibrations from Yang as she reached down and plunged three fingers deep within the blond.

Yang was quick enough to mirror Blake's movement, causing both girls to scream in pleasure as they collapsed in a tangle of limbs, shuddering and riding out their pleasure as their hands continued to pump in and out to make the incredible feelings last.

As they came down from their high, Yang rolled off of Blake causing Blake to shiver with the sudden lack of Yang's body heat. She reached over and pulled the blanket up as Yang's breathing slowed to a normal pace.

"I can't believe this is what I was missing." Yang laughed as she pulled Blake close under the covers.

Blake felt she didn't need to respond, so she just pressed herself to Yang's side as the already dark room slowly grew darker with the coming night. After a moment, Blake heard Yang's breathing slow even further as she fell asleep.

Blake smiled to herself as she twirled her fingers around a stray lock of Yang's hair. Somehow all she could think about was what would happen tomorrow.

* * *

Roman stretched his arms, making the joints crackle as he let out a long, tired breath. _It might not be pretty, but it's done._ He thought as he surveyed his handiwork.

The supposedly irreparable power armour that his employer had supplied was operational. Standing twenty feet tall and equipped with shoulder mounted missile launchers and arm mounted high caliber machine guns in addition to the massive blades that served for close range combat, the monstrously huge weapon looked ready to kill. Literally.

"Well, that's it. Time to get paid." He mumbled as he flipped through his contact list on his scroll. He found the right one and clicked the call button.

"Yes?" A female voice answered impatiently.

"It's done. I expect my money by noon." Roman said shortly. Of all the jobs he'd taken on in the past, this was one of the more troublesome. He had very little patience left for his client.

"Very good. And now we can finally move on to phase 3. How would you like to drive the Mark Four?" The woman asked as if she was asking about the weather.

"Hell no! I just built it, there's no way I'm driving it!" Roman said, knowing that any job where he had to drive a killing machine was likely to involve risk. He wasn't a coward, he was a survivalist.

"How about for fifty times your last fee?" The voice asked shortly.

Roman paused. His last fee had been a hundred thousand lien, meaning she was willing to pay five mega lien for his help. That meant that either she was desperate for his help, or she was convinced she wouldn't have to pay it. Probably the latter.

"Sorry lady, five mega sounds great, but there's actually another more important job that came up that suits my interests better. You're going to have to find someone else to drive the thing." Roman said as he hung up. _Bridge burned._

"Okay losers, I'm out!" Roman called to the other mechanics in the large hangar before he left. He walked out of the hangar and saw the last rays of light leave the sky. Far in the west large black clouds were forming and he had a hunch that they were directly above Vale.

He quickly jumped into a nearby aircraft and took off. It's not like he had anything to do now that he was out of work, so maybe he'd drink away his most recent paycheck in that bar. Maybe he'd be able to find out who that random old guy was from the last time.


	9. The Battle of Vale: Chapter 9

"It might not be pretty, but it's all we've got." The click sounded, indicating the General had hung up.

"Sir, we have reports of Grimm massing along the border. Also, our most recent inventory reports indicate we only have eighty thousand rounds before we run out completely." Glynda reported, walking beside Ozpin as he solved the more immediate problems at the front line. "With no supplies expected to arrive before we run out, we are in dire need of a solution."

"Have you counted the supplies at the school?" He asked for the fourth time within that hour.

"Yes, sir. We have already combined our supplies. No matter how we look at it, we need the general's help." Glynda said as Ozpin passed another box of ammunition to one of the guards.

"His terms are very steep. However we have no choice but to accept them if that really is the case." He sighed. It had been a very long two days and it seemed there was no coffee to be had anywhere. It was fortunate he was already accustomed to sleep deprivation. "Send the general a message that says I will accept on his terms only if the casualty rate does not exceed one percent."

"Very well. Should we inform the Vale Militia of the plan?"

"No. I do not think it would sit well with them. However, we will warn the students of the changes to their education in the morning. Until then, we can only wait for the general's response, but I highly doubt he will refuse." Ozpin said darkly as he walked away into the night, leaving Glynda alone with her glowing scroll.

After he disappeared, she turned and headed back in the opposite direction while casting a glance toward the thick, clouds where a storm was slowly brewing closer. She shook her head, pushing the feeling of unease farther back so it wouldn't interfere with her judgments. _If only there was something we could do…_

* * *

Weiss was sleeping when Ruby returned. There was no real point of just sitting around, but Ruby didn't think it would be a good idea to go back to the dorm considering her earlier glimpse of Yang tackling Blake who was fresh out of the shower and only wearing a towel.

Ruby checked on Weiss. It seemed that she had been awake at some point looking at the news on her scroll. Ruby carefully took the device out of her hand and was about to put it down when she noticed the headline. Upon reading the article, she felt a pang of confusion as to how the news had gotten their hands on pictures of her and Weiss in a somewhat compromising position.

She scrolled down to the article and read what turned out to be mostly speculation about who Ruby was and how she had 'seduced' Weiss Schnee. She frowned as she subconsciously picked out every way that the article portrayed lesbianism as a bad thing and decided to find out who the author was.

After more than ten minutes of searching, she had found out several things. The author had paid to have his article written for him, the news site had paid for a negative overview of the whole affair, and since Weiss was a prominent figure for her father's company, it wasn't too strange that people took an interest in her life. The one thing she couldn't explain was how anyone had gotten the photo to begin with.

"Uh…" Weiss mumbled, causing Ruby to panic and drop the scroll. It clattered on the ground and Ruby jumped down to pick it up. When she stood up, Weiss was looking at her with one scroll in each hand.

"Good morning!" Ruby chirped as she placed Weiss's scroll on the night table and put hers in her pocket. Weiss looked at her scroll for a moment before deciding to let it go.

"What time is it?" Weiss asked as she sat up. She knew she still had to fix her leg, but there wasn't much she could do until her aura recharged a bit.

"Just past one." Ruby informed her. "How's the leg?"

"Probably still has at least one break." Weiss replied as Ruby started to gather food from her tray and bring it over. "And I'm really not hungry right now."

"Food gives you energy and that's what you need." Ruby argued in a stern voice. "At least try to eat something… for me?"

Ruby was doing the puppy dog face again and Weiss was trying desperately not to give in, but with those big shining eyes that made her girlfriend look so cute, the battle had been lost before it even began. "Fine. Bring whatever you think I'll hate the least."

"Yay!" Ruby exclaimed in triumph as she brought over something that was labeled 'apple sauce' but looked closer to a brick of slime. Ruby scooped out a generous spoonful of the goop and cupped her hand under it as Weiss leaned forward.

At first, Weiss had objected to being fed like a baby but after some arguing, Ruby got her way as she normally did. It wasn't as if Weiss didn't like the attention either, but it was a little embarrassing when Ruby would make sound effects.

"Choo. Choo. Here comes the-"

"I swear, if you say train, I will not eat another spoon of anything you give me!" Weiss barked, wiping the smile off Ruby's face. Ruby let Weiss eat the food before she put the spoon and the almost empty container to the side.

"I'm sorry. I… I just want to do something! I want to help, but I cant! And I know what you're going to say, but I can't do anything without you. My priority is my team. It's like we're all family but at the same time we're so far apart it's scaring me." Ruby trailed off as her worries that Weiss had only guessed at came tumbling forth. "You're stuck in here after saving Yang. Before that, Yang almost died saving me. The only thing I keep wondering isn't _will_ this happen again, it's _who_ will it happen to next time! Which one of us will be the first to get unlucky and actually die from this?"

Ruby turned away as she fought the tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. After a moment, she took a deep breath and continued. Her voice was thick with the fear she felt.

"It's no wonder that Ozpin called off the tournament after all those Grimm attacked on the first round. But why is it that we always seem to get all the bad luck? There's Yang and Nora getting kidnapped, Blake and the faunus thing, me and you always seem to be fixing all the problems, and it almost got us killed last time!" At this point, Ruby collapsed into her chair beside Weiss's bed as the tears finally broke free. "At this rate we're not even going to survive till graduation!"

Weiss reached a hand out to comfort her leader when she noticed the door quietly click shut. Standing just in front of the door was Professor Ozpin, both hands resting on his cane as his slightly bloodshot eyes assessed the situation.

"I highly doubt that you will have to worry about graduation in the coming months." He said sadly as he walked over to the window. Ruby didn't react to his words, and Weiss kept trying to comfort Ruby as much as she could at arms length. He sighed and turned back to the girls. "As of the final benchmark, your team ranks highest in the school. Even higher than the most advanced fourth year teams. As such, I am entrusting to you a mission that I have no doubt that you will manage to complete before the clock runs out."

Ruby looked up, having finally calmed down. The look in her eyes told Weiss that she had a deep mistrust of what Ozpin was about to ask of them. Weiss couldn't blame her, but at the same time she knew that if Ozpin was coming to them to solve the problem at a time like this, it must be important.

"I would like to brief you and the rest of your team in my office tomorrow morning immediately after the announcement. I cannot force you to accept if you do not wish to, but I fear that there is very little I can do without the help of a team as exceptional as yours." He walked back to the door and stopped with his hand on the handle. "Please think about this carefully. Millions of lives may depend on you. There will be no backing down if you choose to accept."

With that last warning, he left Weiss and Ruby who were staring at him in wonder and shock.

"Ruby?" Weiss asked tentatively. She was still reaching out to the younger girl beside her and Ruby looked up, her eyes questioning as millions of thoughts ran by behind her eyes at the speed of light. "Don't worry about it right now. He said after the announcement tomorrow. We'll decide then, okay?"

Ruby nodded and relaxed a little in her chair. "I'm kinda tired now, you should fix that leg too." She said as she readjusted herself so the chair wouldn't be too uncomfortable.

"Why don't you go back to the dorm? I'll be fine on my own for a bit." Weiss said, thinking Ruby would benefit from a night on a mattress.

"Yang and Blake are… I'm not going into it today. But its a no-go zone." Ruby sighed as she closed her eyes.

Weiss had a feeling she knew what might be going on and started to shift farther to the edge of her bed. Ruby's eyes snapped open as she heard Weiss rustle the sheets.

"What are you doing?" Ruby asked, jumping to her feet as if she was looking for a way to help.

"I'm making room for my girlfriend." Weiss answered as if it was the most logical thing in the world. "There's no point in having you sleep on that dreadful piece of junk."

"I'm fine. The bed's too small for both of us anyways." Ruby said quickly, as Weiss came dangerously close to the edge. "If I get in, you'll fall out!"

"The only way I'm falling out is if you don't get in to _keep_ me from falling out." Weiss answered with a grin. She knew she had Ruby in checkmate and she could see the battle in Ruby's eyes. "I'll make it easy for you, see? My broken leg is at the edge so you don't have to worry about accidentally bumping it."

Ruby slowly nodded and climbed in beside the white haired girl. She was pressed right up to Weiss's side and Weiss wrapped her arm around under Ruby's neck to hold her close so neither of them would fall off.

"I guess we haven't had much luck for alone-time since Christmas." Weiss mused as she remembered her promise to Ruby that felt several years old even though it had only been a few days.

"Not really, no." Ruby affirmed.

"We do have right now though." Weiss stated, closing her eyes at the comforting warmth of Ruby beside her.

"Yeah. We could have tomorrow too if we skip the briefing." Ruby suggested with a yawn. She snuggled closer to Weiss and carefully wrapped her leg over Weiss's uninjured one.

"Somehow, I doubt that…" Weiss mumbled as she fell asleep. Ruby's breathing slowed shortly after, neither one loosening their embrace for the entire night.

* * *

"-Your attention! Can I have your attention, please!" Glynda spoke through the rarely used Beacon intercom system. "The headmaster has an important announcement about the recent developments in Vale as well as a change in our educational system that will greatly affect all students. He will make this announcement in five minutes time."

"What in Remnant is that all about?" Blake asked as she walked back into the room with breakfast in a bag under her arm.

"Probably the announcement he mentioned last night." Weiss answered. She had been cleared to return to her dorm just an hour ago and was happily sitting on her bed feeding Ruby cookies as she lay in her lap.

"Last night?" Yang asked from Blake's bed. She was putting the finishing touches on her gauntlets to make them more resistant to various types of damage.

"Yeah, Ozpin came into Weiss's room and told us we have an optional mission briefing in his office after the announcement." Ruby said. She frowned until Weiss gave her another cookie, finding it impossible to be in a bad mood when her girlfriend fed her her favorite food.

"Sweet!" Yang said, pumping a fist in the air.

"No, not sweet." Weiss replied. "He made it sound like it was really serious. Fate of all humanity serious."

"Oh, I know you didn't just quote-" Yang started in shock.

"Damn straight, girl!" Ruby laughed at Weiss's attempt to incorporate a movie quote into real life situations.

"O-kay… anyone want to let me in on the joke?" Blake asked as she handed out the breakfast.

"Just a movie quote babe." Yang said, pulling Blake and her food down to the bed.

"Anyway, he was really serious about the whole thing, so I think it might be better to hear the announcement before we decide to go." Weiss said with a noise of confirmation from Ruby who had her mouth full with another cookie and a bite of her egg sandwich.

A loud beep rang out of the intercom and everyone fell silent as they waited for Ozpin to speak.

"Hello. As you all know by now, Vale has been attacked by the creatures of Grimm." He paused to let his words sink in. "As of now, we have lost half the city and countless lives to the sudden and seemingly random attack. As of three this morning, General Ironwood of the Atlas Military Academy, and consequently, head of the Atlas Military, has agreed to an operation to evacuate Vale of all civilian and military personnel."

Ruby looked up to see Weiss frowning. When she noticed Ruby's glance, she smiled slightly and shook her head before returning her attention to the announcement.

"As a condition for his cooperation, Beacon Academy will remain independent and classes will resume within a section of Atlas Academy, however… this education will be sped up as the need for hunters and huntresses on the front lines has become dire. For third and fourth year students, it will likely mean that you will be graduating within a few weeks. For the first and second years, a little over a month. These were the terms of our agreement, and I apologize that I must force this upon you. You will receive a message on your scroll telling each team where to go for your evacuation. Do not miss this flight as there will be no second chances." The quiet buzzing of the intercom faded as the power went out.

The girls sat in silence, looking at each other as the meaning of the situation collapsed.

"What _exactly_ did that mean?" Ruby asked slowly as she tried to wrap her head around all the information Ozpin had given.

"It means we're being forced to fight a war." Blake said gravely, exchanging a glance with Yang.

"And it means that they're abandoning Vale." Weiss added grimly.

After a moment of thought, Ruby pulled out her scroll and sent a message. She turned back to her team and nodded to herself. "Let's go see what we have to do."

* * *

 **A/N: Thanks for reading, and for the followers of my other works, please notice that I will not be updating them on a regular basis anymore, and I will update post dates on my profile every Monday.**


	10. The Battle of Vale: Chapter 10

Ruby led her team into Ozpin's office. All the lights were out, creating a disturbing sense of unease throughout her team. The small emergency lights let out their feeble glow, creating barely enough light for them to make out the lack of people in the hall. Ruby continued walking, using her memory to pick out the door of Ozpin's office.

She knocked and the door opened to an even darker room with Ozpin sitting behind his desk, illuminated by his scroll as he sorted through papers and made notes here and there. She cautiously approached his desk and cleared her throat as her team stood behind her in a row like soldiers behind a general.

"We'd like to be briefed on the mission you mentioned last night." Ruby said bravely even if she didn't feel it. The atmosphere was about as dark as a night without stars and as stifling as a wall of impenetrable fog.

Ozpin stopped his sorting for a moment to tap on his scroll and change the screen before he continued. He stopped again on a page that he stared at for a minute before underlining something and placing it down on the top of the mess of papers on the side of his desk. He pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose and folded his hands as he assessed the team before him.

They were barely visible in the dim light from his scroll. And he seemed to consider them each in turn before he turned his attention back to Ruby.

"I want to make one thing clear before I start. What I am about to brief you on has been… a continuous problem with only one real solution. The final goal was once within reach, but failed at the cost of almost everyone involved. But in the current situation, the risk is much higher than it was last time and it grows every day. Rather than what was originally a preventative measure for a possible threat, this is now a race to stop what will come and destroy all knowledge of the threat. If you wish to get involved, I will brief you fully of the current situation as well as our objectives. Just know when making the decision, that each of you has a stake in this already." Ozpin said carefully as he watched Ruby for any reaction.

Ruby didn't look back, but knew that her team was wondering what the headmaster's last statement had meant. "Would you be able to tell us what you mean by the last part?"

"Certainly." Ozpin said to the shock of RWBY. None of them had expected him to give out information so freely as he was. "Ruby, Yang, your stakes are simpler to explain. Your uncle Qrow has been working with me for the past two and a half decades. Weiss, your stake is more complicated as I do not know how far it goes, but your father's company is involved in at least a small capacity, and has been for the past decade."

"And I'm guessing it's not in a good way." Weiss sighed, remembering the Grimm Sphere incident.

"No, no it's not." Ozpin confirmed. "And Blake. I suppose you have the weakest stake compared to your teammates, but you know the politics of the pro and anti-faunus movements. Your stake is the future of your team and whether or not you will be a part of it. But that is all I will say before you make your decision."

Ruby finally turned to look at her team. Weiss's expression was set, a frown putting a crease in her forehead. Blake looked as calm as ever but gave a slight nod when she noticed Ruby watching her. Yang's response was much more pronounced as she cracked her knuckles.

Turning back to Ozpin, Ruby took a deep breath. "Tell us everything we need to know."

"Very well, but I will leave that to my colleague. I daresay you'd like to catch up." Ozpin said as he pressed a button on his scroll. The lights in the room suddenly flared bright and a door that Ruby had never seen open hissed as the doors slid aside.

Standing in the doorway was a tall, gruff looking man with a full beard and a thick tube slung on his hip. His cloak looked almost as old as he did with its tattered gray fabric wrapped around what appeared to be some type of composite armor. Past all the harsh and unforgiving exterior, his eyes shone bright silver as if illuminated from within and a toothy grin stretched his scarred face, making his visage even stranger.

"Qrow!" Yang yelled in surprise before running up to him and almost tackling him in a hug.

"I cant believe you're here!" Ruby said as she followed her sister.

Blake and Weiss exchanged a glance before following the other three through the door to the next room. The room was a small meeting room with a table with eight chairs set around it. The table appeared to be some sort of crystal that the light in the room seemed to come from, casting strange and distorted shadows on the five people.

Ruby and Yang finally stopped talking to pull their respective counterparts in.

"These are our teammates Blake and Weiss." Yang announced, not letting go of Blake's hand even after she finished pushing her forward.

"Good to meet you. I'm their uncle Qrow and a professor at Signal. Or I was before we blew it up, but you girls can call me whatever you want."

"Okay, um… it's nice to meet you too Mr. Qrow, sir." Blake said nervously as Yang got unusually close behind her.

"Ha ha. No need to be so formal, Blake." Qrow laughed as he shook her hand.

"Yeah, Qrow really doesn't care what you call him. Isn't that right dipstick?" Yang asked, aiming a punch at her uncle's arm. Qrow caught her fist in his hand like he always did.

"That's right knuckle brains." He responded with a chuckle.

"Well then, Qrow, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm-" Weiss started holding out her hand.

"Weiss Schnee." Qrow took her hand in a firm handshake. "And I already know about you and Ruby, so you can call me uncle too if you'd like."

Ruby chose that moment to have a coughing fit and Weiss patted her on the back until she calmed down. Weiss's face took on a slight blush at the implication.

"How do you know that?" Ruby asked once she caught her breath.

"Actually, I'd like to know that too." Weiss admitted, her ice blue eyes staring at the light silver that looked so much like Ruby's, but different. Ever so slightly different.

"I'm sure you check the tabloids every so often." Qrow said with a wink towards Weiss. Her face instantly went several shades of red darker than Ruby's cloak as she remembered what she'd fallen asleep reading the previous night.

"God, don't ever bring that up again!" Ruby almost yelled as she too remembered the images on Weiss's scroll.

"Sure, sure. Well, let's get down to business now that introductions are out of the way!" Qrow boomed with a grand gesture to the glowing table. The group sat down along one side as Qrow walked around to the head. "As Ozzy said, this is a long running op. I'll spare the details and just give you an overview for now."

He placed his scroll on the table and pulled up three holographs. He spun them all with a swipe of his hand and they turned around so the girls could look at them. He made the first one larger as he sat down behind the projection. It was a large black circle with six red dots that looked like the eyes of a spider forming an upside down v shape in the center. At the very bottom were the letters GS that seemed to have been added to the design as an afterthought.

"Weiss will probably be the only one to recognize this one. It's the symbol for the Schnee Corporation's project Grimm Sphere." Qrow explained as he tapped his fingers on the table. "Long story short, the 'official' project is researching ways to combat the Grimm. In reality, they're simply looking for a way to control their movements. In theory, the research would help us greatly in defending our territories and even expand. However, it would also be capable of sending Grimm numbering in the millions to attack a territory…"

He trailed off as the girls made the connections themselves. After a moment, it was Blake who spoke up.

"You think that the attack on Vale was terrorism?" She asked carefully.

"I don't think. I know, but anyone who tries is going to have a damn hard time proving it. And it wasn't just a random act of terrorism either. Something on that scale would need to be both practiced and premeditated." Qrow responded with a nod, noticing understanding spark in the heiress's eyes.

"Round one of the tournament." Weiss said, remembering the unusually large amount of Grimm in the forest that day.

"Bulls-eye. From the amount of time between the two incidents, we can count on one of two things. Either whatever it was didn't work to the scale intended, or whoever was behind it wasn't ready to act. But other than those two incidents, nothing has happened across Remnant to indicate other tests." Qrow stopped there as he made the emblem smaller and made the next one larger.

This emblem was smaller than the first with nothing really remarkable about it other than its striking resemblance to a dust crystal. The wire-frame crystal hung vertical in the air, it's pyramid like shape completely see through.

Noticing Weiss's questioning glance, Qrow nodded. "Yeah, it's the Hollow Crystal. According to legend, a manufactured hollow crystal can absorb an almost infinite amount of dust energy. Until recently, I hadn't even considered this to be a point of concern."

"How does that matter to us?" Yang asked with a frown.

"There are rumors. Really they're just whispers of rumors, less substantial than anything anyone would be able to tell you, that someone on the other side, and I use the term loosely, has access to a person who can create the hollow crystal. If that's the truth, then we can also assume that the same person is responsible for the string of dust robberies that hit Vale." Qrow said.

"Torchwick! He was the one who tried to rob both that store and the shipyard!" Ruby said.

"Yeah, I've been keeping an eye on that one on and off for a while now." Qrow said with a shrug. "Whoever wants the dust is working the guy to the bone and he's not too happy about it. I'm sure if the price was right we'd get him to help us too. Naw, he's just a greedy scumbag with a skewed perception of right and wrong. It's his employer that I've been trying to find, but all I have to go by is a female voice and an anonymous bank account number. Not exactly a treasure map to the hollow crystal or its maker."

Qrow turned off the projection. "Right now, your objectives are to find out if the hollow crystal actually can be made and if Grimm Sphere has turned out a device that would be capable of controlling Grimm. If the crystal can be created, then the power contained in that single crystal might have the ability to power whatever device that would have the ability to control the Grimm. This makes things difficult seeing as we are talking about an indeterminate energy source that might make the power of all the crystals in White castle look like a triple A battery, meaning that even the failed experiments may be operational provided they are fully powered."

"So what do you need us for?" Weiss asked, gesturing to her team. "It seems like you and Professor Ozpin have everything under control to me."

"Not as much as you might think." Ozpin said as he entered the room to sit beside Qrow, across the table from Ruby. "You will undoubtedly be forced to graduate along with the fourth years due to your undeniable combat record. General Ironwood will then send you to the 'front lines' where you will defend Atlas from Grimm attacks by taking out troublesome nests."

"We want you to keep your eyes peeled. Take note of anything interesting or suspicious. We don't know who or what we're dealing with, but we can be sure it dates back several centuries to an old cult that worshiped Grimm." Qrow said. He stopped tapping his fingers as he looked at Ozpin. "It's also a fair bet that whoever is behind it isn't too happy with the powers that be."

"What was that last image? You had three but only showed us two." Yang asked referring to the holographic images.

"Now isn't the time for that. It'll come later. Trust me." Qrow answered while looking directly at his niece. Yang seemed to understand the unspoken command and nodded silently in response.

"From here on out, do not contact either of us. Your scrolls are most certainly going to be monitored and contact with us will make the General suspicious of your allegiance. If we find out anything relevant, I will find a way to inform you." Ozpin said as he took a sip from his ever-present coffee cup.

"In an emergency Ruby or Yang can reply to the message I sent you at the beginning of the year. And don't take any risks, this isn't a child's game we're playing. Our enemies will kill you without batting an eye. Use your heads, stay low and under the radar, and remember to trust your instincts." Qrow finished, getting up and walking to the door. He pressed his hand to the panel at the side and it slid open with a hiss. "It was nice to see you girls again. I hope next time we'll have time for a barbecue."

"Yeah…" Yang said under her breath as she watched the door slide closed.

"So what now?" Ruby asked Ozpin as he did nothing but sip his coffee.

"I just wanted to warn you once more about the importance that you pay careful attention to your surroundings." Ozpin stopped, placing the coffee down on the table. "Be wary of sudden new friendships and even more so of old ones. As Qrow said, trust your instincts, and make your teammates a priority."

The silence in the room steadily grew as Ruby looked over at Weiss. The white haired girl smiled slightly and reached out to grab onto Ruby's hand under the table. She squeezed it to tell Ruby not to worry. Ruby nodded and looked past her girlfriend to Yang and Blake who were watching her.

"Okay then. Let's go get ready for Atlas." Ruby said as she stood up. She didn't drop Weiss's hand like she would have done before she knew that Ozpin knew of their relationship.

"Banzai!" Her team echoed, reminiscently from their first unofficial mission.

"I wish you luck, team RWBY." Ozpin said as Ruby placed her hand on the door making it hiss open. "And I hope you will not blame me for what you may encounter going forward."

"Why would we blame you?" Blake asked, looking back at the headmaster.

"Because it was I who failed the first time." Ozpin said darkly. He picked up his coffee and sipped it slowly. As he did so, he pressed his hand onto the table and the light slowly faded, leaving the room in darkness.

The door hissed closed, cutting off the light from the office completely. Team RWBY walked back to their dorm as Ozpin sat in the pitch of the room, remembering the faces of those long dead.

 _Those who do not learn from the past, are bound to repeat it…_ The thought struck his mind suddenly, piercing through his remembrance of his team. _I just hope that I was right to conceal why I failed…_


	11. Welcome to Atlas: Chapter 11

"Hurry up, you guys!" Nora called from the airship.

The robotic pilot was already starting the engines as Yang sprinted towards the craft across the front lawn of Beacon.

"Hold the door!" She called as the ship started to slowly lift off the ground.

Ruby kept the door open as Yang sprinted closer, timing her jump and firing her gauntlets to give her extra altitude as she came hurtling throught the open door. She flew past Ruby and gave a short scream before she tackled Cardin to the ground, landing on top of him.

"Well hello there." She laughed as she tried to get off the bully.

"Get. Off. Of. Me. Now." He replied through gritted teeth as his team looked on, laughing behind their hands.

Yang finally managed to push herself up and was helped the rest of the way by Blake who had come over from the seats that her and Weiss were saving for the sisters. "You should feel honoured! I dont just jump onto any guy, you know!"

"I'd be more honoured if you didn't just jump on any animal that came your way." He responded. Yang's eyes flashed red as she looked up at him, locking him with her best death glare.

"I bet it's a long drop to the ground by now." Yang growled quietly while cracking her neck threateningly.

"Whatever, just leave me alone." He turned away and found his team barely concealing their laughter. "Oh, shut up!"

Yang turned away after taking a deep breath and placed a quick peck on Blake's cheek as Ruby slid the door shut. Ruby went to sit between Weiss and Jaune who were looking away from each other like they'd just had another argument.

"You're not supposed to be jumping onto any guy, period." Blake whispered tauntingly as she dropped Yang's hand and went back to her seat. Within seconds of sitting down, she'd pulled out a small black book and started flipping pages.

Yang sighed and took her seat beside her as she settled in to read. Yang was left to wait as the aircraft made the long journey to Atlas. The only thing she was happy about was that this trip wouldn't be as long as the one to White Castle had been.

"Nora! Sit down!" Ren said as he pushed his way through the crowded interior of the airship. Nora, to nobody's particular surprise, was bouncing around, annoying those around her with her constant talking.

"There you are, Ren!" She bounced over and Ren caught her to carry her bridal style to his seat beside Jaune.

"It's a long flight and we don't want to be thrown off early." Ren said to Nora with a smile of appology to the people Nora had been bothering.

Nora seemed to take Ren seriously and deflated slightly. "I was just kind of excited because we get to take another trip together…"

Ren sighed. It was so hard to deal with Nora some days, but despite that he wouldn't change anything. "Yeah, I know you were. But lets save the excitement for when we get there. Okay?"

Nora nodded and continued to sit in Ren's lap for a while as she hummed a tune that nobody followed as it changed tempo and rhythm every few seconds.

* * *

Hours later as the aircraft descended Jaune let out a long sigh of relief as Nora had managed to not make everyone in the plane want to kill her. Ren had even managed to get her to fall asleep in his arms for an entire hour. Jaune had a funny feeling that Nora had actually been knocked out during that time.

Blake hadn't said a single word to Yang who in turn had tried to interrupt her from reading for the entire flight. Pyrrha had managed to talk to Jaune for a while and she seemed much happier than before getting on the aircraft, much to the detriment of the other students around her. And Ruby and Weiss had had an enjoyable flight sleeping as they cuddled with each other.

"It's almost a shame we have to wake them up." Yang said, nudging Blake's book out of the way so she was forced to look up.

"You could always leave them for a while longer." Blake suggested shortly. She pulled her book away from Yang and continued reading, her brow furrowed in annoyance from being interrupted.

Yang seemed to think for a moment before she reached into her bag. Nora noticed Yang rummaging and came over with Ren following close behind. He wasn't out of the woods yet, after all.

"Whatcha lookin for?" Nora asked, crouching to look in Yang's bag.

"Just… this!" Yang said in triumph as she pulled a normal looking water bottle out. Her other hand clutched two small paper cups.

"Where'd you even get those?" Blake asked, having looked up for a moment before returning to her book.

"Doesn't matter… anyway, hold this." She passed Nora the cups and filled them half way with the water. She took the cups back from Nora and walked over to Ruby and Weiss.

"What was in that bottle?" Blake asked sternly as she eyed Yang's almost evil smile.

"Nothing illegal." She answered with a shug. Then she kicked Weiss in the shin causing her to yelp and Ruby to bolt upright and reach for her weapon. "Relax, we're going to land soon. I thought you two might be thirsty since you've been drooling all over each other for the past four hours."

"Eww! No we have not!" Ruby argued, but accepted the proffered cup nonetheless.

"I do not drool." Weiss stated, as Yang handed her the other cup.

"Well, drink up!" Yang said with a smile as she almost jumped back to her seat so she'd have a good view of both Ruby and Weiss.

Weiss took a small sip before looking over at Ruby who'd dumped the whole thing down her throat. Her cheeks took on a pink tint as she looked back at Weiss.

"I don't think that was water." She said in a raspy voice.

Weiss tossed the rest of her drink back and looked over at Yang. "No, Ruby. Yang gave us vodka. A horrible tasting, cheep vodka too."

"Hey, that stuff cost a lot!" Yang pouted as her joke backfired. Somehow she'd imagined Ruby and Weiss choking on the stuff as their throats burned. Their real reactions had been much less entertaining.

"Upwards or downwards of one hundred lien?" Weiss asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm not rich!" Yang pouted more.

"It's okay. The joke wasn't that funny either." Blake said as she stowed her book back into her bag. She reached out and intertwined her fingers in Yang's hair. Somehow she'd figured out that that was Yang's 'calm down' button if you were the right person.

"Thanks a lot babe." Yang grumbled sarcastically. Blake rolled her eyes and dropped her hand from Yang's hair.

"Anytime." Blake answered, relaxing back into her chair.

"Something wrong?" Yang asked when she noticed Blake's expression.

"No, not really." Blake answered with a shrug. She put on a big smile for Yang's benefit.

"Yes. There is. What're you thinking?" Yang argued, looking into Blake's eyes as if she could discern the answer from the dialation of Blake's pupils.

"Really, Yang. It's nothing. I was just thinking about all the books I couldn't bring. Our shelves were still overflowing when we left, you know." Blake sighed, closing her eyes as the old speaker announced they'd be landing within the minute. Ozpin had already sent the information for the new dorm rooms and maps of Atlas to their scrolls, but Blake hadn't taken a look at them yet.

"Well… I was sort of saving this as a 'welcome to the new dorm present'… but I guess I could give it to you now…" She had pulled a small block wrapped in paper out of her bag and held it like something she had a deep personal attachment to.

"What is that?" Blake asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

Yang didn't answer right away, like she was trying to find the right words. "Well, I found this and had a feeling you might like it."

She passed the package to Blake who carefully lifted the corner of the wrapping and pulled it off the book. It was an ancient looking, leather bound book with no writing on the cover. She carefully opened the age and use worn pages and flipped through them. After the first few pages, she figured out it was a story book like the ones you might read a child before bed.

Blake had never read the story before and had to force herself not to start reading it now as her habit urged her to.

"Thank you very much. But do mind if I ask where you got this?" She didn't want to seem rude, but the book was in dreadful condition, so she assumed there was something else that Yang hadn't told her.

"Well, that book has my favourite story in it." Yang said. "It's the third one. It also has the more adult version of the one I used to tell to Ruby when she was little."

"Thank you Yang." Blake smiled and wrapped her arm around Yang, giving her a quick squeeze before she felt the aircraft bump slightly on the ground. Everyone in the cabin seemed to tense as the brakes forced them to lean to the front of the craft. The atmosphere seemed suddenly apprehensive as the craft came to a stop and the lighting changed with the hissing of the door unsealing itself.

Slowly, a crack of light appeared, blinding those who looked directly at it. The sliver of light grew inch by inch until the door had completely disappeared into the wall. Outside stood a lone mechanical soldier with a large rifle in a standard military salute.

"Please make your way to the terminal for General Ironwood's address. Your bags will be delivered to you upon your arrival at your new dorms." A cold and emotionally dead female voice came out of the robot's speaker. The soldier then turned to the side before marching off, leaving the beacon refugees to follow at their own pace.

Ruby led her team out into the bright light where hundreds of identical aircraft sat on the largest, flattest piece of cement any one of them save Weiss had ever seen. Everywhere around them, robots went about their work, already taking pieces off the planes that had brought them there. Other robots waited patiently for the students to finish exiting before entering the cabin of the craft. The thousands of silver robots were all polished to a shine, reflecting the sky above as they shifted from shape to shape to perform their tasks.

Soon they had reached the terminal, which had been a lot closer than anyone had expected since it was about a hundred times larger than the terminal in Vale.

On a temporary pedestal, stood the general flanked by obviously high ranked officials along with a row of mechanical guards all standing in the salute position with their weapons stowed.

"Welcome to Atlas." Ironwood said, his voice amplified by a microphone that made every robot into a loudspeaker. "Today you are refugees from a city that has been anihilated by the creatures of Grimm."

He let the croud stop shifting before him before he continued. Ruby looked over at Weiss and Yang who were both frowning, but probably for different reasons.

"Let me assure you that Atlas has the strongest protection in all of Remnant. But that will only last as long as you are brave enough to step up and fight for the safety of those you hold dear." He paused as one of his officers whispered something in his ear. He shook his head slightly before returning to his speech. "So at this point I will ask if there is anyone here that would like to discontinue their training, please talk to the nearest peacekeeper immediately. Otherwise, I look forward to welcoming you into Atlas Academy in our brand new Accellerated Training Program. As of next year, you will each have a position with the Atlas military, and together we will take this world back from the Grimm!"

There was a small cheer at the end by only a handful of the students. The general didn't seem to care and walked off in deep conversation with the whispering official.

"That was odd." Blake commented to her teammates as they slowly walked to the entrance of the terminal.

"I don't know what it is exactly, but that guy just rubs me the wrong way." Yang agreed, still frowning.

"I don't know, he just seemed like he was giving the usual welcome speech like Ozpin did at beacon." Ruby commented, looking to Weiss for her opinion.

"I think he was saying a lot more than what you picked up on, Ruby." Weiss sighed, being used to political speeches, and being taught how to write her own from a very young age definitely gave her the advantage.

"Well spit it out already!" Yang said impatiently as Weiss gathered her thoughts, earning her a scowl from the heiress.

"First, he referred to Vale as anihilated. Meaning completely destroyed. Gone. Even if we do take it back, it will be Atlas, not Vale in power." Weiss said, going through the general's speech systematically. "He also mentioned that the robotic military, though strong, isn't capable of fending off the grimm. That's why he needs hunters and huntresses to join him. He also was straight forward about his quick training program, so either he's confident in everyone's skills, or there is something else that he intends to do with those in the program that doesn't include combat. After all, just because our team is one of the best, doesn't mean all the teams are like us."

Ruby took in Weiss's words for a moment before responding. "Well, we're not quitting, so lets figure out what's really up. I bet we can get some information from the other students."

"I somehow doubt that." Blake sighed.

"Oh, come on. People can be nice, you know." Ruby argued.

"Obviously you've never been to Atlas." Weiss said, patting Ruby on the head.

"Listen to Weiss, Ruby." Yang agreed, her voice as serious as it ever had been. "And don't go anywhere alone."

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked, glancing past Weiss to Yang.

"I've heard some bad rumors about this place." Yang said cryptically as she walked around to link her arm in Blake's.

"And I regretfully must agree that most of them are probably true in places." Weiss sighed as she dialed the number of the Schnee's head office into her cell phone. "I'm Weiss Schnee. I'd like a taxi to come pick us up at terminal two… yes, thank you… goodbye."

"So we have a ride?" Ruby asked hopefully.

"Yes, and another visit with dear old daddy." Weiss anwered dryly. The venom in her voice barely kept at bay as she continued. "He wants something."

"Meh, we've done more badass shit in the past week than he's probably done in his life. If worse comes to worse we can always wreck his face." Yang piped up as they finally reached the door to the terminal.

"If only it were that simple." Weiss sighed, squeezing Ruby's hand as she enjoyed the warmth of the contact.

Ruby squeezed Weiss's hand back and responed. "Well, we might as well get this over with."


	12. Welcome to Atlas: Chapter 12

**Attention:**

 **M rated content in section 3.**

 **That is all.**

* * *

"In summary, I am offering your team and a selection of other top teams from the refugee group, positions within the company. I would hope that you might accept." Mr. Schnee spoke calmly from the chair behind his desk in the study of his Atlas home, Casa Blanc. He watched the girls seated before him on comfortable chairs that he'd had brought in from the lounge. Blake, Ruby and her sister Yang all seemed to be considering his offer. But even he could tell just by looking that the final say would have to come from his daughter Weiss.

"How would that work while we're enrolled?" Weiss asked. She knew as well as he did, that he could just force her to do what he wanted now that there was no more Beacon and the contract he'd signed was void. Somehow she'd never imagined that Beacon would ever not be part of her life.

"You would only be working weekends, and even then, only if we have need of you. Most likely, there will be two teams working per weekend and will be on rotation with the other teams. So far I have eight teams that have accepted, so one weekend every five weeks if your team accepts." Mr. Schnee explained to everyone in the room.

"Well, I have no problems with that. Guys?" Weiss asked, looking to her team leader.

"It wouldn't hurt to make a little spending money." Blake said with a nod of her head.

"Well, I guess I have to ask, what we'd be getting paid." Yang said, looking at the CEO.

"The same as the other teams, you will each receive a bimonthly payment of ten thousand lien."

Yang almost chocked and Ruby started speaking to cover her sisters reaction. "Unless you can assure me that our work will not affect my team in any way, both mentally or physically, then I will have to decline the offer."

"You are making a reference to the events at White Castle." Ruby nodded and he hesitated the briefest of moments before continuing. "The White Castle incident was investigated and was the result of a rouge research team in the company keeping their research to themselves and using it for an ill-conceived purpose. Since then, I have launched audits of every department in the company. All of which have yet to result as anything other than what I expected."

Ruby looked at Weiss but she was looking at her father, waiting for the conversation to end. "And we can quit anytime?"

"Of course. You have no obligation to continue your employment if your interests lie elsewhere." Mr. Schnee responded patiently.

"Then I guess we accept for the time being." Ruby said as she stood, her team following suit.

"I will send you the information sometime in the next week. And for tonight, you will receive lodging in the south wing. I trust you will make your own room arrangements, so I will just ask that you let the south wing butler know which rooms you are using so he will be able to clean them once you've gone."

"Thank you, father." Weiss said before leading her team out of the room.

Out in the hall, Ruby caught up to Weiss as she was the last to leave the room.

"So… you two seem to be getting along better." Ruby said as she took Weiss's hand.

Weiss linked her fingers in Ruby's and leaned into her slightly as they walked. "Well, I'm not too sure about that, but something is definitely up."

"So I'm not the only one with that feeling." Ruby sighed. "Any idea what it might be?"

"Not a clue. We'll probably figure it out eventually though." Weiss pulled Ruby around a corner that led to the next building.

"Just remember what uncle told us." Yang said from behind them.

"They haven't forgotten. But we'll need to explore before we learn anything." Blake said as they turned another corner.

"We're here." Weiss said to her team. "What rooms do you want?"

Blake looked into the nearest doorway, seeing a massive bookshelf filled with dusty old tomes. She walked in, leaving Yang in the hall behind her.

"I guess we got this one. Where'll you two be?" Yang asked as she walked over to the door.

"Room twenty-four. At the other end of the hall." Weiss responded pointedly as she continued walking with Ruby.

"Why so far?" Yang asked suspiciously.

"Because I definitely don't want to hear what my sister is doing tonight, and I know you don't want to hear me either!" Ruby said, pulling Weiss faster toward their room and away from her sister. In the brief silence she blushed deeply and added an amendment to her reasoning. "And I don't mean what that sounded like! It just came out that way!"

"Fine, I get it. Just don't do anything I wouldn't!" Yang started to close the door before poking her head back out. "See you in the morning girls!"

"That would make a very short list." Ruby mumbled, thinking she wouldn't hear.

* * *

Ruby let go of Weiss as she entered the very last room at the end of the hall. She looked around at the extravagant forest green fabric that covered the four-poster bed in the middle of the light brown carpet under the dark ceiling that was speckled with small white dots.

"Nice pick." Weiss commented as she took off her jacket and tossed it over a chair that sat at a small desk in one corner.

Ruby sighed as she turned the lock on the door so it clicked quietly in the silent room. _Finally alone!_ She thought looking at her beautiful girlfriend.

"Well don't just stand there." Weiss said walking up to Ruby and pulling her gently away from the door. She led her over to the bed, taking her cape off as she did so and tossing it over her jacket.

Ruby climbed into the bed and lay on her side as Weiss hit the lights and settled herself in the empty spot on the bed. In the darkness, Ruby's lips found Weiss's in a kiss that said everything that had been unspoken between the couple.

All the stress and fear and uncertainty unraveled and disappeared, leaving only Weiss and Ruby. Ruby let herself enjoy the kiss as their tongues danced and their arms wrapped around each other while their legs entwined so there would be as little space as possible between them.

"I really needed that." Ruby sighed leaving her eyes closed, preferring instead to feel Weiss in her arms.

"I know." Weiss breathed before kissing Ruby's forehead tenderly. "Lets try to just forget everything for now. Okay?"

Ruby's answer came in the form of another kiss that melted any chill that might have remained in the room before. Ruby started to undo the laces at the back of Weiss's dress and the heiress responded by tugging at the laces on Ruby's corset.

Without ever opening an eye or breaking their kiss, the two girls undressed each other and slipped beneath the covers. Finally, they surfaced breathing heavily but slowly.

Both were exhausted from the very long day and soon fell asleep. Neither one loosening their grip on their partner. Holding on tight to the only escape from the ever-present darkness that had shrouded their lives.

* * *

Ruby opened her eyes to the dim rays of light barely starting to filter in over the desk. It took Ruby a moment to realize there was no window there as she lay motionless beside the still sleeping Weiss.

For the first time, she really paid careful attention to the room. The four-poster bed was the deep green of leaves that you'd find deep within a forest where the sun could never truly dry them out. The carpet was light brown like fallen leaves that had been collecting dust for years without biodegrading. The desk was simple and made of wood stained white and matched the chair that sat beneath it, holding Ruby's cape and Weiss's jacket. The walls had no windows, but seemed to create their own natural atmosphere the way the walls and ceiling seemed to think they were the real sky although the level of detail in the hues of the sunrise left Ruby feeling disappointed at the cheap imitation.

Ruby turned her eyes back to her girlfriend as she slowly breathed in and out in her sleep. _God! She's so beautiful when she's sleeping._ Ruby thought as she took in the small details of Weiss's face.

Her hair was still tied back in her signature ponytail from the previous night, allowing Ruby to look at her whole face without disturbing her. Weiss's mouth was curved up in a small smile, indicating she was having a good dream as she unknowingly held Ruby, their bodies pressed together. Ruby noticed how the corners of Weiss's eyes that were almost always crinkled up from stress, were relaxed and smooth like Ruby'd only seen them on a select few other occasions.

Ruby reached around Weiss's head and slowly pulled the single pin that kept her ponytail together out of her hair. She tossed it to the pile of clothes she knew must be somewhere on the floor beside the bed. She liked Weiss's hair when it was unconstrained so she could tangle it in her fingers. She let a small lock fall around the sleeping girl's face and Ruby saw perfection in the sleeping white haired girl.

Ruby closed her eyes after memorizing every detail of the early morning scene. The bed was so warm and comfortable, she couldn't bring herself to get up just yet.

Minutes or maybe hours passed by the time Ruby reopened her eyes to the fake sun shining from the wall of the room, only a few inches clear of the desk. In the artificial light, she looked back at her girlfriend. Crystal blue met her light silver eyes. The corners of the white haired girl's eyes remained unwrinkled as she looked at Ruby lovingly.

"Good morning." Weiss whispered before closing the small space between them in a short but tender kiss that made Ruby feel like melting.

"Morning Weiss." She responded with a smile at how comfortable it was to be with the girl beside her.

The silence between them stretched comfortably as they simply lay in the embrace that had lasted the entire night. Eventually Weiss spoke up. "I guess we can't just stay here like this all day, right?"

"I don't think so. We do have the orientation. And Blake probably won't stop Yang from coming in if we don't go out before lunch." Ruby sighed. It seemed the world was constantly working against them even when it seemed to be trying to help.

"Well… lets make the best of right now then." Weiss said. Her usually pessimistic mindset seemingly traded with Ruby's optimistic one. "And aren't you supposed to be the optimist in this relationship?"

Ruby let out a small laugh before giving Weiss a small peck on her soft warm lips. "I'm taking a break today."

For the thousandth time, Weiss wondered what she'd done to deserve Ruby and her love. She leaned in and kissed Ruby gently as she tried to wordlessly convey how happy she was at that one moment. Ruby smiled making Weiss deepen their kiss. After several moments, Weiss tried to break the kiss but found Ruby sucking gently on her tongue.

Ruby pulled Weiss closer and resumed the kiss with all the tenderness that Weiss had started the kiss with. It didn't last as Ruby felt the need well up deep within her to kiss harder, faster, to devour. Surprisingly to Ruby, it was Weiss who's resolve broke first as the tempo was pushed up several notches and their breathing turned into gasps in between the times that their tongues spent dueling in each other's mouths.

Weiss pulled Ruby as close as she could, needing to feel the warmth of the fire burning under Ruby's skin. Ruby broke out of the kiss, running her hands down Weiss's back as she desperately gasped for fresh oxygen. Weiss moved to the side and started nibbling on Ruby's ear as she shifted, arching her back as if she could press any further into Weiss.

A loud bang rang out in the room as the door slammed open. Weiss broke out of the kiss and yelled angrily at the intruder. "Yang! I swear I'll kill you!"

Both Ruby and Weiss turned their heads in the direction of the doorway to see the intruder wasn't who they had expected. Instead, a young blond haired girl that couldn't have been more than three or four stood staring at them with an open mouth and wide eyes. The door slowly swung shut and quietly clicked closed as Ruby and Weiss exchanged an uncertain glance.

The pattering of hard soles on the tile floor could be heard from the other side of the door as its source traveled back down the hallway, eventually disappearing and leaving the silence of the couple's still labored breathing.

Ruby suddenly burst into a fit of giggles. "For a second, I thought it was going to be your dad there!" Ruby sighed her relief as she imagined what would have happened if it had been. The picture wasn't very pretty to say the least.

Weiss also found herself laughing as she relaxed beside Ruby. "Whoever that was, we totally scarred her for life, you know." Weiss took the smallest comfort in the fact that they were still covered by the blanket, so the girl hadn't seen anything except the end of their make-out session.

"So…" Ruby sighed, leaning her face closer to Weiss's. "I guess that killed the mood a bit, huh?"

Weiss shivered as Ruby ran her fingers down her exposed arm, causing goosebumps to spring into being. She nodded slowly before she could remember how to talk. "A bit…"

"But not…" Ruby said just as Weiss slowly started running her hand continuously lower down her back. "Uh… completely… right?"

Weiss didn't think the question justified an answer as she leaned in to Ruby's already reaching mouth, once again lost with the temptation that was Ruby.

Ruby didn't waste time as she removed her own undergarments, thankful that Weiss did the same. She brought her hands to Weiss's breasts, massaging them at first before rubbing the tips and squeezing them before restarting the pattern, making Weiss gasp in the short breaks between kisses. Weiss found her hands mirroring Ruby as she felt the pressure inside her slowly grow into something that desperately needed release.

As if sensing this, Ruby moved one of her hands down to Weiss's womanhood, finding her sensitive button as if she'd had it on the end of a string. Weiss moaned loudly in the quiet room as she tried to mirror Ruby.

Seconds later, Ruby swore loudly as Weiss not only found her sensitive bud but managed to start pushing two of her fingers in beneath as she massaged Ruby with her thumb.

Ruby quickly thrust two fingers into Weiss who's hips bucked almost violently in response before she started moving to increase Ruby's pace on her own. As Weiss moved, she thrust her fingers in and out of Ruby, hitting the spot she knew was driving her girlfriend crazy as she squeezed Ruby's nipple with her free hand, causing Ruby to swear again to the room as they broke from their kiss.

Ruby was breathing heavy and knew that Weiss had her very close to the edge. She wanted to share her moment with Weiss, so she did everything she could to get Weiss to the same point. She matched Weiss's pace and nibbled at her earlobe, being careful not to bite down when Weiss's hand sent a wave of pleasure coursing up her spine. She played with Weiss's breast, concentrating on the erect nipple as she felt herself teeter on the edge of oblivion.

"Ruby!" Weiss panted, as Ruby continued to suckle her ear. "I- I'm gonna…"

"Me too!" Ruby said with the little air she could get in as the two partners continued to increase their pace.

"Ruby!" Weiss yelled to the room as she thrust her hand back into Ruby.

"Weiss!" Ruby called out as she felt Weiss's muscles clamp down on her hand.

The two breathed heavily as they came down from their shared high, pulling each other tight so their skin stayed in as much contact as possible.

Ruby felt her eyes droop a bit as Weiss placed small kisses on her cheek and lips.

"I really love you, you know?" She sighed as she cuddled into the white haired girl.

"Yeah…" Weiss said, realizing she hadn't finished her thought out loud. "I really love you too."

The couple closed their eyes, drifting back to sleep as the clock continued to slowly tick on towards the inevitable time that they'd have to get out of the warm, comfortable bed.


	13. Welcome to Atlas: Chapter 13

"So what did she say her name was?" Yang asked again as she pounded her head to get the annoying water out of her ear.

"She didn't say." Blake replied as she sat cross-legged before the young girl that had happened to run into their room when Yang had unknowingly blocked the path to the rest of the castle.

The young blond girl sat curled up in the darkest corner beside the drapes to the room's window with a small stuffed rabbit in her arms as she looked out at Blake and Yang with a glare of deep mistrust.

"So what do we do now?" Yang asked as she collected clothes to change into.

"Well we can't just leave her here." Blake said, looking at the girl and wondering what had happened.

"I didn't mean that. I meant how do we figure out where she's supposed to go? If she won't talk that is." Yang said, walking into the washroom, but leaving the door open so they could continue the conversation.

"Well, we could always take her to the butler, or get him over here to see if he knows who it is." Blake thought, remembering the desk at the other end of the hall that had a butler who had given them room keys for their chosen rooms.

"Well, we'll have fun finding him. He wasn't there when I went to find out about breakfast." Yang informed Blake. "I guess we could just hang here till she tells us something."

"May as well. Ruby and Weiss are probably still sleeping anyway." Blake said. She sat staring at the girl quietly until Yang came back.

"Man you are just like a cat sometimes." She said, giving Blake a playful shove. Blake rolled to her feet and looked back at Yang disapprovingly.

"So… do you have a name?" Yang asked gently as she crouched in front of the girl who still hadn't moved a muscle since sitting down. Unsurprisingly, she didn't answer, or give any indication she'd heard Yang. Yang had a sudden thought and moved her hand towards the girl and the girl shifted slightly away. "Shh… I just want to get that drape cord out from behind your back. It must be uncomfortable to lean against it."

Blake watched as the girl shifted again to let Yang pull the cord out and tie it so it hung far above her.

"So, if you don't tell me your name, I'll have to guess." Yang sighed exaggeratedly as she kept the girl's attention. "Is it… Agatha?" A look of deep disgust came across the girl's face, forcing Blake to keep in a giggle. "No? How about… Steven?"

"That's a boy's name!" The little girl blurted before slapping a hand over her mouth and curling up even smaller.

"Maybe, but if you don't tell me what your name is, I just have to keep guessing, right?" Yang said kindly. "Oh! I know… Genevieve!"

The little girl looked extremely stressed as she slowly dropped her hand from her mouth. She took a deep breath and held it.

"Winter!" She said as she couldn't hold her breath anymore and let it out in a rush. She buried her face into her stuffed rabbit, reminding Yang of when Ruby'd been little.

"Hi Winter. I'm Yang." Yang said, smiling at her breakthrough. "This is Blake."

The girl nodded but otherwise didn't move. Yang glanced back at Blake who didn't know what she was supposed to do. Yang sighed and got up. She walked past Blake to the dresser. "Say hi." She whispered as she passed, making Blake feel somewhat stupid.

"Hello Winter. I'm Yang's friend Blake." She resumed her seat in front of the girl, watching as she hugged her stuffed animal tight. Hit by a sudden inspiration, she continued. "I bet you like animals, right?"

The girl nodded slowly, still not entirely trusting the two women in the room. Yang started to look through her luggage, tossing things out into a pile on the bed.

"Well I do too. They're so cute and cuddly, right?" Blake said, receiving a nod from Winter. "Do you want to know a secret?"

"Okay…" The she said quietly, focused fully on Blake and loosening her grip slightly on the stuffed animal.

"Well, do you like kittens?" Blake asked. The girl nodded vigorously this time, almost dropping her animal back to where it was before she'd hid behind it. Blake smiled as she pulled the ever-present bow off her head. The girl's eyes grew wide with shock at the reveal of Blake's feline ears.

"Are those real?" Winter breathed as she looked at them. She tilted her head as if she could decide by getting a different angle to look at them with.

"Do you want to touch them?" Blake asked, remaining motionless. She knew Yang was paying close attention to their exchange. The girl only hesitated for a second before jumping to her feet and walking the three steps over to where Blake sat.

Carefully, she reached out her hand and poked Blake's ear before jumping away as if she'd been burned. When Blake didn't react, she slowly re-approached Blake and felt the short black fur that covered the ears, and stroked her hand down to where the fur disappeared to be replaced by Blake's long black hair.

"It's so soft!" Winter squealed as she continued to pet Blake's ear. Blake couldn't help a smile that pushed its way onto her face.

At this point Yang stopped pulling things out. "I found it!"

Winter jumped away from Blake who turned to see what Yang had yelled about. In her hand, she held a small box of cookies that had obviously been meant for Ruby.

"Breakfast time!" Yang announced as she opened the box and sat down beside Blake. Winter was back in her corner, hiding behind her rabbit again.

"Would you like a cookie, Winter?" Blake asked as she took a cookie out of the box. She offered it to Winter who slowly reached out and took it. It quickly disappeared behind the rabbit with muffled crunching sounds as Winter ate it.

Blake took another cookie and ate it herself, wondering how Ruby could eat these sugary treats almost constantly. Then again, it might have been like her preference for fish. She looked over to see Yang smiling at her.

"Well, now that we had a snack, let's go on an adventure!" Yang said, jumping up and pointing exaggeratedly to the door.

Winter let out a giggle as she got up followed by Blake. "Yay!" She cheered, wrapping one arm around the rabbit's neck so she'd have an arm free.

"Then let's go!" Yang yelled again, heading for the door and swinging it open wide. She led the way out into the hall, Blake following a few steps behind.

Winter trailed behind Blake for a few moments before coming up and grabbing onto her hand. Blake smiled down at the small girl, slowing her pace so the girl wasn't running beside her. Yang had noticed what was happening and had also slowed so she was just a few steps ahead.

Winter squeezed onto Blake's hand then started to run so she'd dragged Blake in front of Yang.

"Where are we going?" Blake asked as the girl turned at a random hallway that she hadn't walked down the previous night.

"Piggy!" She announced as if they knew what she was talking about.

"Um…" Blake was about to ask when Yang tapped her shoulder and pointed at the back of the girl. Her medium length hair was bouncing behind her as she quickly pulled them down another hallway.

"It's an adventure. Just go with it." Yang said quietly, grabbing Blake's other hand.

* * *

Winter stopped beside a large white door. She dropped Blake's hand and pushed it open before throwing her stuffed rabbit onto a bed overflowing with every stuffed animal imaginable.

Yang let out a low whistle. "Man, Ruby would have gone crazy if she'd had a room like this."

"Sounds like Ruby was a fun little sister." Blake said, feeling the good memories that Yang was recalling.

"Definitely one word for it." Yang laughed, before turning to see Winter standing before them in the doorway. "So, where's this piggy?"

"There." Winter responded, pointing across the hall. Yang pulled Blake aside as Winter walked past, pushing open the other door. On the other side, a large steel kitchen stretched on for at least fifty feet before ending with several doors. On one wall, there was a small table with two dishes on it. A lone chef stood at the stove near the table, frying bacon and sausages on a frying pan.

"Piggy!" Winter yelled, running up to the chef as fast as she could.

"Winter, my girl! You're late today!" He exclaimed joyfully as he spun around and scooped the girl up in his arms without looking away from his frying pan. He continued to tend the frying food after he'd given her a piece of already cool food from a nearby plate.

"Yummy!" She said as she held onto the massive man.

"Sorry to intrude." Blake spoke up when she noticed the man hadn't noticed her and Yang still standing by the door.

He jumped a little and sent a glance over to them. "Did you find some new friends, Winter?"

She nodded as she continued to munch on the food quietly.

"Well, come on in and sit down. Breakfast will be ready soon." He said as he scooped the last of the meat out of the pan and grabbed a pot on a back element.

He let Winter down where she walked over to the table and Yang led Blake over to the other side so they'd be able to keep an eye on the girl in the dangerous room.

They needn't have worried as the chef came with plates of food mere moments later, setting enough out to feed them twice over. He sat down beside Winter and started cutting her hard boiled egg into slices that she was quick to push into her mouth.

"So where did she find you two?" He asked with a chuckle, taking another egg from the pile in a basket he'd placed in the center of the table. "And I hope she didn't drag you away from your work."

"No worries. We aren't working here. Just staying the night before heading over to the academy." Yang shrugged as she started to serve herself bacon from the large plate in front of her.

"You're from Vytal aren't you?" He mused. "I'm sorry for what you had to go through. Nobody should have to see a kingdom fall."

"Well, we did manage to save half of it long enough to evacuate." Blake informed him. "Though I have to admit that I've never seen that many Grimm at one time before."

"Oh, you were in Ozpin's rumored task-force, weren't you?" Yang nodded, not elaborating. "It's hard to believe that someone so young could be fighting at the front lines against those fearsome creatures."

"Anyway, I'm Yang and this is Blake." Yang introduced, remembering they'd forgone the introductions to start eating.

"How rude of me! My name is Peter Wigg. Hence 'Piggy'!" He said in regards to Winter's nickname.

"Nice to meet you." Blake said as she sliced her egg. "So you know Winter?"

"Oh yes. She's been here for months now. We have breakfast together every day since she's right across the hall." Peter confirmed before popping an entire egg into his mouth.

"Well, to answer where she found us, she happened to be running down the hallway we were staying in." Yang told him bluntly.

"Which hall was that?" He asked curiously, looking to the girls expectantly.

"I think Weiss called it the AR wing." Blake responded, remembering Weiss talking to the butler about where they'd stay the previous night.

"I know the one!" He said as if it was a miracle he knew where it was. "But there shouldn't be anything scary down there."

"Well she was making good dust until I blocked her path by accident, then she ran into our room and hid in the corner till we could talk her out. Then here we are." Yang summarized the morning as Blake ate.

"This is really good!" She exclaimed after eating a bite of bacon.

"Well it is my secret recipe." Peter said with a wave, but his slight blush betraying his happiness that his food was appreciated. "But that name you mentioned… Weiss, as in Weiss Schnee?"

"Well, yeah. She's our teammate." Yang told him.

"That explains a lot then." Peter sighed.

"Mind explaining to us then?" Yang asked after she swallowed the rest of her plate.

"Well, she probably doesn't know yet, but Weiss is a big sister as of the middle of October."

Blake coughed and Yang pounded her hard on the back until she stopped. "How?" Is all she could think to ask, making a note that Weiss's family was still mostly a mystery to them.

"Winter here was adopted by Mrs. Schnee when Mr. Schnee was off on business. At first it seemed that she wouldn't stay, but she got used to the castle and Mr. Schnee decided he'd let his wife have her if she wanted. The only unfortunate thing about the situation is that Winter spends most of her time alone here in the castle while her adopted mother is off attending to the social obligations as the wife of the CEO." The large man stopped and sliced another egg for Winter who started nibbling on the slices as she was obviously getting full. "Just eat as much as you can, Winter my girl."

Blake took note of the affectionate tone of the man before her. "You must have had kids." She said to the quiet munching around her. It wasn't that anything told her it was true, it was her gut telling her he knew what he was doing.

"That obvious, huh?" He asked with a bit of a chuckle. "It was a long time ago though…" Peter let the silence continue until Winter had finished. When she did, she gave the cook a hug before leaving through the door they'd entered in.

"Bye Piggy!" She called back before the door closed, leaving Blake and Yang to think about the reasons why Weiss hated talking to her family. And more importantly, why she deemed it necessary to have her father sign a contract that essentially let her become independent.

"Would you like me to pack any of this up for the other half of your team?" Peter asked as he cleared the table. He was already wiping the crumbs into his hand with a damp dish rag before he'd even finished his sentence.

"Sure. We can deliver it to them on our way back to our room." Yang said, an evil glint in her eye.

Peter dropped a dozen eggs and a pile of bacon into two foam containers like they always got from the Beacon cafeteria and handed it over before he went over to start the dishes.

"Thank you for the breakfast." Blake said, Yang joining in for the last few words.

Outside the door, they saw Winter's door open a crack. Looking in, they found her sorting through the pile of stuffed animals, throwing those she wasn't looking for to the side.

"She reminds me so much of Ruby. Except the stuffed animals… she never liked those much." Yang commented to Blake as they started the walk back to their room, both carrying one of the boxes of food.

"I guess I never thought about it, but I always wanted a little sister." Blake admitted, earning an awww from Yang. She shook her head a little at the blond's constantly perky attitude but couldn't hold a smile back.

"Well… if you marry me, you can inherit Ruby!" She said as if the thought just struck her.

"Please don't tell me you just proposed to me for real, just because I said I wanted a little sister." Blake said a little more sharply than she'd meant to.

"Only if you want it to be, sweetheart!" Yang laughed. "Also, sooner or later we both know Ruby and Weiss are getting hitched, so you also get the bonus of Winter whenever that happens."

"I think I'd rather just adopt a little sister. It's less work that way." Blake sighed at Yang's big ideas.

"Awww. But that's taking all the fun out of it!" Yang pouted playfully, earning her a light smack on the arm from Blake.

"Anyways… what do you think Winter was running from?" Blake wondered the burning question aloud. "You're the expert on little kids, so what are your ideas?"

"Well…" Yang looked around as they turned a corner. She spotted a few people not far off and leaned towards Blake before continuing in a whisper. "It's a fair bet she came from Ruby and Weiss's room. And in general those two are about as intimidating as a pair of fluffy bunny rabbits. So that means they must have done something that she couldn't figure out how to react to…"

They passed the workers and turned down the last hall before they'd be back in the hall with their room.

"So that means…" Blake started but stopped, realizing she still had no idea what Yang was getting at.

"Although I'm not really comfortable with it, I'd put ten to one odds that they were doing each other. Or at least naked." Yang said.

Blake took a minute to take in Yang's words. "You want to bet on it? I've got twenty lien that say they weren't doing either."

"That's a bit steep if you're right." Yang thought as she calculated the two hundred as a potential loss.

"I don't want to take advantage. We'll do this no odds." Blake said, realizing it might've sounded like she wanted to make some easy money.

"Fair enough, then lets also add that the winner gets to pick one thing for the other person to do." Yang was once again smiling devilishly.

"On one condition." Blake said, smiling at herself. "No limits."

"How did you ever become mine?" Yang mocked shock as she held out her hand to shake.

Blake took her hand and said in an unimpressed tone of voice, "You just keep telling yourself that."

They stopped in front of their teammate's door, exchanging a quick glance. Blake slowly reached out and knocked twice.


	14. Welcome to Atlas: Chapter 14

The knock echoed, making dozing couple snap into alert wakefulness. A split second after, their brains registered the fact that someone was at the door. Followed closely by the fact that they were both completely naked under a thin sheet.

 _Please just wait._ Weiss thought as she reached for the closest piece of clothing she could find. It was part of Ruby's outfit, but it would be good enough to start with.

Luck wasn't on the heiress's side as the door clicked open since it hadn't been relocked since the earlier intrusion. Standing at the other side was Blake looking at the ground as Yang's eyes locked with Weiss's after they took in the white haired girl's position.

"Oh god!" Weiss exclaimed, clasping her arm around her chest before rolling back into bed so she'd be covered by the blanket. Her face was burning red at her unintentional display.

"Damn." Yang said, shaking her head slowly. "I sort of hoped I'd lose that bet."

"So did I." Blake said. She continued to look at the ground. "Anyways, we brought you two breakfast."

"You were betting on us?" Weiss asked, not impressed with her teammates, but not surprised either.

"We'll just leave it on the desk." Yang ignored Weiss, taking the container from Blake and leaving them both on the desk next to the door.

"Thanks." Ruby said, popping her head up from the covers, but holding the cover so it didn't even show her neck.

"Don't mention it sis." Yang said. "Meet us back at our room in an hour or so, kay?"

"Sure." Ruby responded, still not quite sure how to react to the situation.

Yang pulled the door mostly closed before she remembered. "Weiss?"

"What now?" Weiss asked, her face still burning red but this time from anger at her teammate's lack of respect for boundaries.

"Congrats on becoming a big sister." Yang said before closing the door.

Weiss looked over at Ruby in confusion.

"Don't look at me." She said, collapsing back onto the bed.

Weiss rested her head beside Ruby's, looking into the younger girl's eyes. "Do you think she was talking about the little girl that walked in…"

She didn't need to finish the sentence. "Nah… couldn't be. Why would she have a key to the rooms anyway? I bet we just forgot to lock it."

"If you think so…" Weiss responded uncertainly.

"Weiss, relax. What's done is done, and there's no guarantee that Yang was being serious." Ruby said, laughing at her girlfriend's unease.

"Has she ever joked about that sort of thing before?" Weiss asked, hoping Ruby would have a good answer.

"No. But it's not like she could just randomly tell me that I was suddenly a big sister too." Ruby laughed a little and gave Weiss a little kiss, their lips barely touching before she backed off. "Now relax. We've got an hour to stay cozy and we can ask Yang if she was joking later."

"Fine." Weiss felt her face break into a smile as Ruby cuddled up to her. Their bare bodies warmly pressing against each other. She breathed a long sigh to calm the remaining nerves that continued to nag at her. "I'm sort of regretting not being able to do this since Christmas."

Ruby kissed Weiss's neck before sighing in her ear. "I'm just happy you're still alive."

Weiss was once again reminded about how she had come within an inch of death during the fight in Vale. She gulped down her fear of ever leaving Ruby alone or Ruby leaving her alone, and hugged her tighter. "I promise I'll never leave you again."

"I'll hold you to that." Ruby responded before kissing Weiss hungrily.

Weiss moved her head into a more comfortable position before really giving Ruby everything she had. For the first time, she felt the radiation of everything that Ruby was, pushing up against her, and she was happy as she gave Ruby everything she had. Nothing mattered anymore, her heart and life were for Ruby to do whatever she wanted with them.

Weiss felt the friction of their clashing mouths start to heat up as Ruby's speed semblance seemed to be barely controlled. It was the first time that Weiss ever noticed it but she quickly found herself using some form of her own semblance that simply cooled the friction, simply increasing the power every time Ruby's speed seemed to be in danger of burning through a layer of skin.

They broke apart literally gasping for much needed oxygen. Ruby even started coughing as she struggled to refill her lungs with fresh, clean air. Weiss felt a terrible burn in her lungs as they cried out from their shortage. A few deep breaths later, the hurt left and the girls found themselves simply gasping for breath.

"Did…" Weiss began, coughing as her voice cracked. "Did you… use your semblance… that time?"

"I… had to…. I couldn't… control it." Ruby responded, also still out of breath but not as badly as Weiss. "It just turned on… and I couldn't turn it off."

Weiss took a moment to take in Ruby's words. She ignored the small alarm going off in her head. She took in a deep breath and said what she'd been thinking since the beginning of their kiss. "That was the most amazing kiss I've ever had."

"Best ever." Ruby agreed with a smile. "Wanna do it again?"

"You're asking?" Weiss responded with a grin before Ruby ground her lips into Weiss's, rolling so Weiss lay on her back.

 _Something's very wrong._ A little voice in Weiss's head said before the intensity of the kiss pushed the voice down into the depths of her brain. She smiled into Ruby's lips just as they broke apart, once again panting for air.

Ruby kept kissing Weiss with tiny pecks in between breaths. Their breathing once again slowing to the place close to sleep.

"I love you Weiss." Ruby breathed as her eyes fluttered closed.

"Love you too, Ruby." Weiss responded, the dull alarm still sounding in her head, but slowly falling silent as she too fell into slumber.

* * *

"Well, took you two long enough!" Yang shouted at them as they stumbled into their teammates' room.

Ruby and Weiss yawned at the exact same time before slumping down on the currently vacated bed.

"Holy shit you look dead!" Yang exclaimed, looming over them and taking in their appearance. Both girls had dark bags under their eyes which were bloodshot and gray instead of white behind the veins. A second yawn happened between the two girls, making Yang smile. "You could enter a contest with those skills!"

"Leave them alone Yang. I'm sure they've had a long night."

"Bow chicka bow wow!" Yang chimed, forcing Blake to roll her eyes at the ridiculous blond.

"Leaving that area of conversation for another time," Blake said with obvious discomfort. "We happened to meet Weiss's new little sister this morning. She's the reason you had breakfast."

"I don't have a sister." Weiss grumbled. She wrapped her arm over her face to block the light and sighed as Yang pulled her arm away.

"We're not joking. Apparently you've had a sister since October named Winter who lives here." Yang explained, Blake nodding as Weiss sat up.

"Well in any case, the only thing I can honestly say is that I feel sorry for her." Weiss's tone was dry and resentful as she tried to rub the horrible gritty feeling from her eyes.

"I think she seems fine." Blake said. "She does have piggy there for her after all."

"Please don't tell me that she has an actual pet pig." Ruby joined the conversation, mirroring Weiss's attempt to clean her eyes.

"It's what she calls the chef that works across the hall from her." Blake explained. "Anyway, you two didn't happen to be… at it… around the time she ran down the hall, right?"

"Uh… that was my sister?" Weiss asked slowly. The dread on her face was plain as day.

"Yep!" Yang said in her usual bubbly tone.

Weiss let out a long sigh. "Well I really screwed that one up. And I wasn't even trying to."

"It can't be that bad…" Ruby started just to receive a skeptical look from Yang.

"Remember my first boyfriend?" Yang asked her sister.

"Okay, so it's probably bad." Ruby admitted. "On the bright side we don't have to deal with that for long."

"Why not?" Weiss asked in confusion.

"We have to leave in half an hour." Yang said, motioning to her packed luggage.

Weiss sighed. "Why can't this day just end already."

"Sorry Princess, we still got a long way to go." Ruby said, grabbing Yang's arm and pulling herself up. She turned and pulled Weiss to her feet. "Let's go meet your sister."

"Lead the way." Weiss said in defeat before she and Ruby both yawned again.

"That is getting a little creepy guys." Blake informed them before she led the group out into the hall.

* * *

Blake knocked on a door halfway down the hall. The group waited patiently as they heard the noise of little feet running on the other side. The lock clicked and Winter opened the door apprehensively.

"Hello Winter." Blake said with a smile.

"Kitty!" Winter cheered before jumping to give Blake a hug. Without even looking at the others, she grabbed Blake's hand and led her into the room.

"Kitty, huh?" Ruby stifled her laughter and pulled Weiss across the threshold.

"Hey there kiddo!" Yang said as she came in behind everyone, closing the door as she did so.

Winter seemed to suddenly notice the other girls and gave Yang a hug too. She cautiously approached Ruby who smiled at her warmly. Winter tilted her head as if trying to remember something. Her eyes grew suddenly wide and she backed up a few steps, bumping into Blake before scurrying around and using her to hide.

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you." Ruby said slowly, crouching down so her height was only slightly taller than the blond child. "My name is Ruby."

Winter nodded that she understood, but stayed hidden as she looked at Weiss. Weiss stood slightly behind Ruby, her normal, unsmiling, passive expression revealing nothing of her intentions to the young girl. Crystal blue eyes met the medium blue eyes of the child.

The two sisters stared at each other for a moment before Weiss finally looked away and sighed.

"My name is Weiss." She told the little girl.

There seemed to be some understanding because she left Blake's legs and picked up the rabbit Blake and Yang had found her with.

She grabbed Blake's hand and opened the door, pulling them into the hall.

"She doesn't talk much does she?" Ruby asked, walking beside Weiss while following Blake and Winter.

"I didn't either, if you remember." Weiss commented. Inside her head, she was still gauging the child to see if they had a chance of getting along. So far things looked okay.

After passing a few doors, Winter pulled Blake into another room. When the others entered, Blake was in front of a cork-board filled with random clippings. Winter was jumping, trying to get Blake to point to the right item. When she finally did, Blake unpinned it and gave it to Winter who carried it over to Weiss.

"Thank you." Weiss said, bending down and taking the offered piece of paper from the girl.

Weiss unfolded the paper and couldn't repress a grin. In the corner was a small picture of Weiss's most recent public profile photo, but the larger paper behind it was much more… entertaining.

"Pffft! What is that?" Ruby laughed, looking down at the billions of crayon scribbles all over the page in Weiss's hand.

"I think it's me." Weiss said, looking down to Winter who was nodding enthusiastically.

"Not bad." Yang said from behind them both. "It looks like she put a lot of work into that."

"Thank you Winter." Weiss said, patting her new sister's head before she started to hug her around her legs.

"Why the long face?" Ruby asked Weiss quietly as she leaned over to also pat Winter on the head.

"If I had given this to my father I would have gotten a smack." Weiss sighed. "I just hope that things have changed since then."

Ruby didn't know what to say. Yang patted Weiss on the shoulder before scooping Winter up and putting her on her shoulders.

"Lets go for a ride!" Yang cheered as Winter held onto her hair with tiny fists. "Be careful not to pull my hair. Because that hurts, okay?"

"Okay." Winter responded, changing her grip so she was hugging Yang's head instead.

"Then we're off!" Yang cheered, grabbing Ruby and running out the door.

Laughing, Blake walked up to a slightly stunned Weiss. "She hasn't been outside yet today. I think its starting to get to her."

"I can tell." Weiss yawned as they headed out the door. Yang, Winter, and Ruby were already at the other end of the hallway and turned down another one, causing Weiss to sigh as she was forced to follow Blake at a run to catch up.

Several minutes and hallways later, they emerged in a massive courtyard. It was fully enclosed with a ceiling and four walls, but somehow had grass and trees growing as if the castle was simply built around a small park. The temperature was that of a warm summer day and artificial sunlight filtered through the leaves of the trees.

"We should definitely have a picnic here!" Yang said to nobody in particular as she ran in circles with Winter laughing on her shoulders.

"Piggy!" Winter agreed just before she yawned.

Ruby and Weiss responded immediately also yawning. Blake watched as all three stopped at the same time.

"Stop yawning at the same time!" Blake whined, sitting down on a patch of soft grass.

"What's the problem?" Weiss asked, a bad cat joke coming to her mind but thankfully staying there.

"It's getting really weird to see you two yawning at the same time so often today."

Everyone started laughing at the same time. Yang was the first to hit the ground as she coughed from lack of air, followed closely by Ruby and Weiss who were trying to hold each other up. Winter was laughing too, but most likely just because everyone else was. Blake sat there with a sour look on her face while they finished getting it out of their systems.

"How much time do we have?" Blake asked Ruby pointedly. Remembering the important address the general would give, Ruby pulled out her scroll and gasped at the time.

"We have five minutes!" Ruby squealed, jumping up and running back the way they'd come.

Yang and Blake followed, Winter tugging on Weiss's sleeve before Weiss sighed and picked her up, making a bench with her arms in front of her.

"Alright Winter, get ready to go fast." Weiss said as she walked out of the room before starting a sprint to catch up to her teammates.

At first, Winter screamed from the sudden speed but the scream turned to a laugh as Weiss rounded a corner without slowing. Winter had her back pressed against Weiss's chest, and Weiss was a little disappointed she was almost a perfect fit against the straight back of the little girl.

Turning a second corner, Weiss dodged to the side just before she almost ran into Blake. Her wide eyes showing shock and surprise as Weiss continued past her and Yang, catching up with Ruby just before they arrived at Winter's room.

Ruby skidded to a halt beside the door, awe in her eyes as Weiss placed the little girl back on her own feet. She giggled as she stumbled into her room and collapsed onto her bed. She was snoring before her head even hit the pillow.

"That was pretty impressive." Ruby said to Weiss as she closed Winter's door.

"What do you mean?" Weiss asked, confused as to why Ruby thought any speed she could achieve would be impressive.

"You got here just after me, and I used a bit of my semblance." Ruby admitted.

"You must not have used much or I wouldn't have gotten here so close to you." Weiss told Ruby as they walked back to their room to grab their bags.

"I guess…" Ruby sighed slowly while ignoring the tiny alarm that started sounding in her thoughts.


	15. Welcome to Atlas: Chapter 15

"You are refugees. Hunters and Huntresses in training that no longer have a place of education or a kingdom to call home. I open Atlas Military Academy for you in the hopes that you will continue along your chosen path and protect Atlas so it does not follow along the same path as Vytal." General Ironwood said loudly from a podium at the front steps of the Atlas Military Academy as he looked out at the remaining Beacon refugees. "Unfortunately, we do not have the means to accommodate the entirety of Beacon Academy until the end of your normal educational period. Therefore, we will be advancing your graduation, starting with the top students, and ending with those on the bottom. Each of you will be given a position within the ranks of Atlas's military, and will be responsible to help defend against enemies within and without."

Ironwood stepped down and walked into the doors of the school as Glynda stepped forward. "Your classes will be sent to your scrolls. If you are being graduated, your class schedule will be replaced by a meeting time with General Ironwood. That is all."

Everyone started milling about, finding their friends and finding out about their schedules.

"So what's on your guys' lists?" Nora asked as she led her team up to Ruby's.

All four pulled out their scrolls and had to double-take.

"Graduation." They all replied with a mix of shock and surprise.

"Really?!" Nora squealed, bouncing even more. "Us too! We totally have to swap info once we get assigned! I bet there'll be even more cool stuff for us to figure out how to ride! Oh, Ren! I bet we'd be the coolest ever if we showed up one day flying a giant tamed Nevermore!"

"Ruby and Weiss already did that, remember?" Ren sighed, reminding Nora of the initiation at Beacon.

"But it died, so that doesn't count!" Nora argued, pulling Ren toward the next few teams that she knew.

"Well, let us know where you end up." Pyrrha said with a wave before leaving to catch up with Nora and Ren.

"Oh, and Jaune?" Ruby reached out and grabbed Jaune before he walked off.

"Uh, yeah?" He asked, casting a glance to Weiss who shook her head cluelessly.

"If you happen to find anything strange, I want you to let me know. But not in a message. Only with voice chat." She said, remembering Ozpin's warning that they'd be watched.

"Sure. Anything in particular to watch for?" Jaune asked, sensing the importance behind Ruby's request.

"Not really… I'll let you know if I figure anything out." Ruby said before he went to rejoin his team.

"Do you think it was wise to bring him in on this?" Blake asked, watching Nora almost tackle somebody and Ren pull her off.

"If nobody else, I think we can trust them. It's not like we told them anything strange anyway. 'Keep an eye out for something strange' is about as useful as 'your shoes are over there' without giving a direction." Weiss stated before she looked back down at her still open scroll. "I have my appointment in five. When are yours?"

"Ten." Blake responded, glancing back at her scroll.

"Fifteen." Yang said, having already remembered the time.

"Uh… now." Ruby said. "I think I'm late…"

"Then get going!" Ruby's teammates yelled as Ruby disappeared with a burst of rose petals.

"Despite how fast she runs, she can be a bit slow." Yang commented, keeping in a laugh at her little sister's antics.

"She makes up for it where it counts though." Weiss sighed.

"Damn you fell hard." Yang actually let out her laugh at Weiss. "But why do you think we're being seen individually?"

"I have one theory. But I hope I'm not right." Blake answered with a frown, looking up at the large castle with its imposing straight-line architecture.

* * *

"I really hate you right now." Yang grumbled as she pulled Blake along behind her, heading down the streets of Atlas as their last night slowly ticked closer to its end.

"Yeah well I'm not too impressed by the situation either." Blake responded sounding almost depressed.

"If you wouldn't have said anything, then I bet we wouldn't have to do this." Yang said for the thousandth time that day.

"Even if I said nothing, I'm sure that the plan to do this has been in his head for more time than either of us know about." Blake argued, finally snapping at Yang even though she'd told herself she wouldn't.

The two girls walked hand in hand down the streets until they came to the right address. Yang leading out front the whole way without ever once looking back at Blake.

She stopped in front of the massively tall building and looked up at it. Looking up from right beside its base, it looked like it continued up so high that it simply disappeared from view before their vision reached the top.

Neither girl had ever seen any building that size, not counting Weiss's castles since this was in the middle of a city with more regular sized buildings behind it.

Yang opened the door and walked inside, only dropping Blake's hand as she went to the counter to check them in. Blake looked around at the lobby of the hotel, not believing that anyone would ever want to stay here of their own will. To be blunt, it was like some little old lady exploded and covered every surface with a doily and added the musty smell that comes from bad air circulation to every piece of somewhat worn leather furniture that was scattered seemingly at random throughout the room.

Yang returned and once again pulled Blake over to the elevator that would take them to their floor. Yang purposefully stood in front of the buttons after she'd pressed their floor so Blake couldn't see which floor they'd be going to. Blake didn't really care as she looked out the glass walls of the elevator at the city around them.

Atlas stretched on for miles in every visible direction with no end in sight. The inky blue of the night pressed down on the city making the buildings look like strange bumps protruding from the dirt with tiny yellow dots that shone dimly through the haze of pollution.

In the distance the fortress that was Atlas Military Academy loomed dark against the rising moon, its silhouette menacing and forcing Blake to turn away.

"I miss Beacon." Yang sighed also looking at the new city around her.

"So do I." Blake replied sadly. As with most conversations, they'd gone over this one several times before.

"One day, we'll take it back." Yang said as her eyes flared red for a split second.

"Sounds like a plan." Blake said, hesitant to start the hours-old argument that Atlas didn't seem to care about repossessing the territory.

The ding in the elevator told them they'd reached their floor. Blake turned as Yang pulled her out of the elevator and down the hall to their room. Blake didn't know why Yang had insisted that they come here, but she knew Yang had spent an hour calling around before she'd settled on this place.

Yang opened the room at the end of the hall and Blake couldn't hold back a gasp of surprise when she walked into what looked like the most expensive suite in the whole place.

The room comprised of two floors with two bedrooms, a kitchen and a massive window in the main room that continued on the ceiling as Blake realized they were at the very top of the building.

"Are you mad?" Yang asked quietly, watching the faunus take in every detail.

"No… why would I be?" Blake asked as she slowly walked further into the apartment.

Yang followed her after she closed and bolted the door. On her way, she took the remote that controlled the main lighting. She turned the dimmer down so it was easier to see out the window.

Standing at the edge of the window, Blake sighed and leaned back on her partner. She closed her eyes for so long Yang thought she might have fallen asleep.

"Hey, are you okay?" Yang asked quietly, concern heavy in her voice as she supported Blake.

"Perfect." Blake responded with a sigh. "Can we just stay like this for a while?"

"I'd like that." Yang responded with relief as she wrapped her arm around her girlfriend.

The city beyond shone darkly, and Yang hit the button on the remote to kill the lights before she tossed it on the nearest armchair. She took one last look at the dark city and closed her eyes, enjoying the weight and heat of her partner that she might not see again for months.

* * *

Across the city, Weiss sat in her father's office. She was supposed to be listening to him talk, but she couldn't keep her thoughts off the caped girl waiting for her outside the door.

"Just give me the short version." Weiss sighed, too tired to deal with anything anymore. "Is Winter legally my sister, or not."

"If you're not going to listen-"

"Damn you! I just get here after barely surviving a Grimm attack, and I'm getting shipped off the very next day!" Weiss exploded. "I'm sick and tired of all the shit I have to deal with, but that's not all! Now I have to listen while you try to explain the political balance in the board of directors!"

"Weiss, I am simply trying-"

"To prepare me? Hardly." Weiss huffed. "If I ever take over the company I'll be getting rid of them, so what do I care?"

Mr. Schnee just stared at his daughter, a look of disappointment on his face.

"Now, I'm leaving tomorrow for who knows how long, and I'm determined to spend as much time with Ruby as I can! I came here to ask you a simple question, and a simple answer will do. Is Winter my sister?" Weiss yelled, leaving her chair. To walk out or attack she couldn't tell.

"She was adopted by my wife, so I suppose she is your adopted sister of a sort." He said with a sigh at his daughters impatience.

"Thank you father, and I'll say goodbye since I wont see you before I leave." Weiss gave a slightly mocking curtsy before leaving the room.

"Goodbye Weiss." He called just before the door closed.

Weiss walked down the hall and almost fell into Ruby's arms as she gently gave the girl a kiss to wake her from her nap.

"Good morning." Weiss whispered when Ruby opened her eyes. Ruby blinked a few times before she recognized Weiss holding her in her arms.

"Hey." Ruby croaked, her throat dry from breathing through her mouth in her sleep.

"I definitely have a baby sister." Weiss informed her with a smile.

"That's so cool!" Ruby said, now awake enough that she returned Weiss's kiss. "Now we both have sisters."

"Yeah… speaking of which, none of them are around right now." Weiss smiled at Ruby, leaning in close.

"I like the way you think." Ruby joked as she gave Weiss another peck and pushed her away slightly. "While you were in there, I got a message from Jaune. Seems like you'll be with Pyrrha on assignment."

"Really?" Weiss asked. "I guess that's better than being alone.

"Yeah, I'll be with Ren and Yang and Blake will be with Nora and Jaune." Ruby told her before pulling her up to head back to their room.

Weiss didn't say anything until they were almost back to their room.

"I'm sorry Ruby." She said, causing Ruby to look at her in confusion. "I guess I really don't want to let you go anywhere without me there to have your back."

Ruby laughed nervously for a moment. "To be honest, I've been thinking the same thing."

Weiss stopped and pulled Ruby into a hug, closing her eyes to enjoy the feeling of Ruby moving her arms to embrace her.

"Promise me that you'll come back safe?" Weiss whispered into Ruby's ear.

"I promise. Do you promise too?" Ruby asked, the mood in their hug getting to her and stirring up the fears she always kept so carefully controlled.

"I promise." Weiss sighed in relief. "And we're not allowed to break those promises, okay?"

"Never." Ruby agreed, her fears pushed down by the weight in Weiss's voice. If nothing else, Ruby knew she was the most stubborn person she'd ever met. And when she promised something, she delivered.

Weiss's lips found Ruby's as they started kissing like they had that morning before everything had become so uncertain.

Now there was a desperation in the kiss as if it was the only water left in the world, or the last fish on the planet, or the last sun in space.

The kiss heated up so quickly, Weiss couldn't control her aura to keep it cool. The two felt their lips almost fuse from the intense heat and by some miracle managed to find their way back to their room without once breaking the contact.

Even when Weiss's lungs were crying out for air, she ignored them, needing to keep her tongue dancing with Ruby's for as long as possible. Weiss felt Ruby's legs hit the bed, so she picked up her girlfriend before letting the two lovers fall into the cool, soft sheets.

 _Ruby, I want you to take everything you want._ Weiss thought as she consciously surrendered to the girl beside her. She knew it was dangerous to let her guard down completely, but she knew that right now, there was nothing she wanted more than for Ruby to become one with her.

Ruby's semblance flared and died, before coming back with more strength than ever while Weiss felt her semblance automatically compensating for the friction from Ruby's speed. It was such a glorious feeling that she didn't have to consciously regulate her aura, that Weiss finally let down her last restraint and kissed Ruby harder than she ever had, her tongue plundering and lips smashing, all the while, Ruby's pace increased and for whatever reason could not surpass Weiss's.

Minutes or hours later, Weiss felt her aura dissipate as it finally ran dry. Ruby seemed to slow suddenly at the exact same time and they separated. Neither one gasped for air that their lungs undoubtedly needed. They simply lay next to each other, light silver eyes dancing with crystal blue in the darkness that still seemed to emit light.

Slowly, Weiss felt her breathing slow at the same pace as Ruby's as they cuddled together comfortably. The night, though far too short, was enough for the girls. Enough for right now.


	16. Deceiving Appearances: Chapter 16

Weiss looked at her scroll, waiting patiently for the message that was sure to come any minute now. She was waiting in her sleeping quarters while Pyrrha collected her food from the mess hall. She stared at the unchanging scroll for so long her eyes were watering by the time she received the notification that she'd been waiting for.

 _Hi Weiss. Everything's fine. Just another day of sand and more sand. Not a single worthwhile Grimm to report, not that we'd have had the ammo to take it down anyway. I'm glad you're day was okay too. I can't wait to get back to Atlas next week. I hope I'll see you there. Love you, Ruby._

Weiss sighed as she reread the last line. Six weeks ago, Ruby had been hesitant to put that in her texts, but seemed to get over it when she'd seen it in every single one of Weiss's messages to her.

Weiss started typing back. _I know for a fact that something is wrong. What is it?_

After another moment, Weiss read the response. _I can't really explain, but I have a feeling something's up. Echo might know more._

It was now an old joke, but the day before they left, Qrow had shown up when Weiss was saying bye to her new sister. Both Ruby and Yang had called his name one after the other, causing Winter to call him Ko. Most of them were pretty sure she was trying to say Echo. Weiss had suggested they use nicknames when texting seeing as nobody would be able to figure out who they were referring to unless they were on the inside of the group.

 _Have you heard from the others? I got a letter from Winter. She's getting much better at drawing._ Weiss picked up the letter that had arrived earlier that day in the mail, unfolding the picture inside. The monstrous scribble was now decidedly bipedal in contrast to the ball in the previous one, so Weiss had to figure she was starting to get better. But other than the two legs, it was basically identical to her other picture that she had packed in a safe place in her bag of clothing.

 _It must be nice to have a little sister who sends you pictures._ Weiss felt a wave of sourness ghost through her head. She immediately started her reply.

 _To be honest, I don't really give it much thought. Plus, you know I'd draw for you if you wanted me to._ Weiss had to laugh as she felt a wave of disgust pass through her. Her drawings had been named a crime against humanity by her team.

 _No thanks. I'm seriously good. By the way, how many politicians tried to get into your pants today?_ Weiss cringed at the jibe.

 _Only about every one I saw. You seriously think it would have an effect if I introduced myself like: Hi I'm Weiss, I'm a lesbian in a steady relationship with no plans to leave it. Turns out it doesn't change anything._ Weiss rolled her eyes as she remembered the idiotic young politician that had tried to pick her up after General Ironwood's financial report.

 _You seriously said that?_ Ruby responded. Weiss's brain thought yes before her fingers started typing.

 _That is awesome. Just don't get into trouble, kay?_ Ruby's next text read as Weiss yawned, backspacing her message and typing a new one.

 _Sure. Well, I'll be going to eat before I call it a night. I love you Ruby._ Weiss texted, and waited for the usual sign-off from Ruby before closing her scroll.

 _Love you too, babe._ Ruby's text read. Weiss slipped her scroll back into her uniform and left the room.

 _Pyrrha must still be waiting in line._ She thought as she made her way across the clean compound to the mess hall. Inside, the sparkling tile floors and freshly painted walls greeted her mockingly as if she was someone worth the millions of lien the establishment spent to keep it looking that way. She could easily count on one hand people forced to live in cruel conditions that deserved these halls more than her or anyone else that was currently there.

"Over here!" Pyrrha called, waving from the cash register at the end of the line when she noticed Weiss walking down the line. Once she paid, she picked up both trays and carried them over to a nearby table that was still empty.

Weiss sat down in front of her tray, looking at the disgustingly high quality food that was in front of her.

"What's wrong?" Pyrrha asked. She was looking at Weiss from across the table. "Did I get the wrong thing?"

"No." Weiss answered, shaking her head. "I'm just getting sick of everything. The buildings, the food, and worst of all are these idiotic politicians who think they have a right to whatever they want."

Pyrrha chewed on her food and swallowed before responding. "Some days I find it difficult to believe you are about a thousand times more wealthy than I am."

Weiss nodded. She had known since the first day at Beacon that Pyrrha was a national champion, but it hadn't occurred to her that it implied she was better off financially than most other students. "I don't know why but every time Ruby tells me about her day, I hate myself a little more for being here instead of at some other front line outpost."

"We all have a job to do. Ours just happens to be a more social job than the others." Pyrrha sighed. Weiss knew Pyrrha felt the same way she did, but she had given up fighting what was their reality.

"I just hate it." Weiss grumbled. "We get up in the morning and walk around smiling and shaking hands and turning down all the pickup lines they can think of, then its late so we go to sleep. Then it starts all over. I haven't picked up Myrtenaster in three weeks. I haven't been to the gym in over a month! I'm going crazy and all I can do is wait till Ruby gets back so I get an excuse to leave this hell-hole!"

Weiss looked down at her food with disgust. She couldn't eat the well cooked pork-chop or the mashed potatoes covered in creamy gravy or the garden salad even if she had a gun pressed to her temple. She sighed as her stomach growled its displeasure.

"You really need to eat something Weiss." Pyrrha said, concern heavy in her voice. "I know it can be hard sometimes, but you have to eat something."

"I know I have to eat, but even if I force myself, I'll just throw it up like I did yesterday and the day before." Weiss sighed as she pushed her tray away. "I just cant do this anymore. If this is what being a huntress means, then I'd rather be chained up and dropped from a thousand feet into a Beowulf den. I'd probably have a higher chance of survival too."

She started walking away. Pyrrha looked after her, concerned. Her thoughts were interrupted when Jaune messaged her. She read her scroll and sighed.

 _Come by after work, I found something that might be interesting._

* * *

Jaune's apartment in Atlas turned out to be messier than Pyrrha had expected. Thousands of wires crisscrossed over the floor, some running under tape or carpet so they wouldn't get caught on legs as people walked through to the kitchen. A whole wall was filled with hundreds of black boxes that blinked with green and orange lights randomly as a large computer at Jaune's desk communicated with them. On the screen, lines of code flew by as one of the programs continued to work even though Jaune had stepped away.

"Want a cola or something?" He asked from behind the kitchen wall as Pyrrha stood in the entrance to the cybernetic hub.

"Thank you, but no thank you." Pyrrha responded. "I didn't think you were serious when you said they'd given you your own place."

"Saves me time on commute, makes it more convenient for me to just hop back if they need me, and saves them a load on renting office space. Win-win situation." Jaune explained. "Anyway, that also lets me keep an eye on things in my own way ever since I blocked their tracking software with an automated routine last month."

He cracked his can drink and expertly navigated through the jungle of cords to his chair. Pyrrha followed him, mirroring his moves. Once she got there, he offered her his chair and leaned over in front of her to start typing commands into the scrolling interface.

Pyrrha felt her breath hitch as she saw up close, the muscles in Jaune's arms twitch with force as he hit the keyboard. "Here. Read this."

The screen was now showing lines of data, one of which Jaune had highlighted. "It's an inventory list, right?" Pyrrha asked, only having seen a few in passing before.

"Bingo! Now riddle me this: if you have ten million pounds of dust in storage with about four thousand pounds being added monthly, that you need to increase funding to buy more dust per month." Pyrrha remembered the General's financial speech at Jaune's words.

"It doesn't make sense, no." Pyrrha agreed.

"Now I looked into the whole supply line while I was at it, to find out where all this dust is being sent seeing as Atlas buys about fifty million pounds a month from Schnee Corp." Jaune said as he brought up several shipping manifests. "At first I didn't see anything strange. These are the hardest hit outposts, so it would make sense to arm them to the teeth."

"It's definitely a smart tactical choice." Pyrrha admitted, not seeing where Jaune was going with this.

"But this one is where Ruby and Ren are stationed. Both of them complain about a lack of supplies. There are only fifty hunters there, so there should be plenty to go around." Jaune stated the fact before switching to another manifest. "This outpost was overrun five years ago and hasn't been taken off the shipping list, and this one here technically doesn't exist, though I know that doesn't mean it's not there. And that's not mentioning the hundred thousand pounds that go missing every month. It's not like losing a shell, its closer to losing bomber full of warheads."

"How can they lose that much dust?" Pyrrha asked incredulously.

"That's my problem. That's where the electronic trail ends. Wherever the dust is going, its completely gone. And I will bet that it's one of those politicians lining his or her pockets or helping the rumored terrorist faction get ready to take Atlas." Jaune said before he closed everything off and started a new window where even more lines of code ran by. "There. Now I can let this thing do my job and relax."

"Do you think we should tell the others about it?" Pyrrha asked, knowing Weiss would love to have something else to do in her limited spare time.

"No. At least not over anything electronic. Ruby's warning was right. There is definitely someone watching us, but I can't tell who they are or what their goal is." Jaune sighed. He looked at his computer for a long time before he continued on a different subject. "I don't think I ever did thank you for all the work you put in at Beacon to help me become a better fighter. Thank you."

"You're welcome. But I did it because I wanted to." Pyrrha answered honestly. She watched the steady stream of code rush past, not wanting to look Jaune in the face lest he notice her blush.

"Believe it or not, I had fun when we'd spend hours with me trying to learn how to fight and you beating me up whenever I made a mistake." He seemed to be deep in thought for a moment before he returned to the conversation. "I guess I want to apologize for all the trouble my stupidity caused over the whole time we were there."

"There's nothing to apologize for." Pyrrha answered. "We all had stupid things that made things harder for ourselves and others. Some of us still do."

"Nah, well maybe Nora's the exception, but otherwise we've all got serious jobs that we do without any real break to goof off." Jaune said with a wave of his hand.

"Jaune." Pyrrha sighed. He really wasn't making it any easier for her. "I know we're friends, but I never wanted it to stop there."

She waited patiently as Jaune opened his mouth to close it, reconsidering his words.

"I wanted to help train you because I couldn't stand watching you fight alone." Pyrrha said, laying her heart on the table for Jaune as she'd only daringly dreamed of doing before now. She hadn't seen Jaune in weeks even though they lived in neighboring buildings, and she wasn't about to pass up this opportunity any longer. "I never said anything and hoped you'd notice me on your own. But with everything going on, your mind was always elsewhere."

"I never knew…" Jaune said, bowing his head.

"I know now isn't the right time, but I don't really see a better one coming, so I just wanted to let you know how I felt." Pyrrha got up and walked to the door.

"Wait!" Jaune said as he ran from the room. Pyrrha heard a few crashes and more curses before he returned carrying a small box. He opened it to reveal a fancy gold bracelet. "I got this for… well it doesn't matter anymore. The point is that even back then when I looked at this, it never did fit the image in my head, and I just figured out why."

He took Pyrrha's wrist in one hand and clasped it on. He inspected it closely and rubbed a smudge off a section with his sleeve before moving his hands to hold onto Pyrrha's hand.

"I wouldn't be able to tell you why, but just now, all those things you said. It suddenly clicked in my head. I got this bracelet for you. I'm sure of it. I don't know why it took me so long to realize it, but it was never anyone else's since the day I came across it in the store." Jaune took a moment to breathe, watching Pyrrha's shocked reaction. "I guess what I'm asking is: will you forgive how stupid I was and go out with me?"

"Yes." Pyrrha breathed, her wide eyes staring at the expensive bracelet on her wrist. It was shockingly heavy for such a thin creation, but somehow felt like it had always been there. It was the perfect gift, and she knew Jaune well enough to know he was good at picking out gifts that suited the receiver. He wasn't lying when he said he'd gotten it for her but didn't know it. "Yes. I would love to go out with you."

"Great! How does tonight sound?" Jaune asked, reaching into the closet beside them and grabbing his jacket.

"Well, as long as I get back before eleven. I have an early day tomorrow." Pyrrha silently cursed her work schedule.

"It'll be fine. I'll share my little secret for getting out of work." Jaune replied cryptically before offering his arm and leading Pyrrha out the door.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **I placed a poll on my account asking what I should focus on for National Novel Writing Month. This story is in edits, so that's why it's not on the poll, but if you'd like to see one of my other works updated much more often (or completed) or a new story, please cast your vote on my profile. It will be up until an hour before NaNoWriMo's kickoff, so if you can take the time to vote, thank you very much!**

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are ready to see what trouble Nora's been up to! Find out next week!**


	17. Deceiving Appearances: Chapter 17

**Author's Note:**

 **Edit: added separators**

* * *

"Where were you?" Weiss asked as she collapsed against Pyrrha in exhaustion. "I felt like I was in a zombie apocalypse where I wasn't allowed to kill the zombies no matter how much I wanted to!"

"I have news!" Pyrrha almost glowed as she supported Weiss back to her bed.

"What is it?" Weiss asked, noticing the usual smile on her face was replaced with one much larger that Weiss had only seen occasionally before.

"Do you want my news or Atlas news first?" Pyrrha offered, sitting on the edge of Weiss's bed.

"Your's first then." Weiss said with a wave of her hand as she tossed her scroll onto the small table beside her bed.

"I'm now officially dating Jaune!" Pyrrha squealed causing Weiss to think of Ruby whenever cookies were mentioned.

"That's great! What made him figure it out?" Weiss had to ask.

"I was sort of feeling depressed that we don't all hang out like we did at Beacon anymore, and I told him how I felt. Then he goes and brings me this." She held out her wrist to show Weiss the gold bracelet. "Isn't it wonderful?"

"That looks like real gold. It must have cost him a lot." Weiss inspected the solid gold with her expert eye.

"It is. There was a folded piece of documentation in the box. Anyway the other news you'll really want to hear." Pyrrha teased, uncomfortable with what other comments might come out of her friend's mouth about her bracelet.

"Why is that?" Weiss asked, sounding like she'd been told Christmas would be canceled.

"Because it might have something to do with Ruby." Weiss stopped any fidgeting she had been doing and looked at Pyrrha with fear in her eyes.

"Please don't tell me…" She pleaded, her eyes starting to water from her expectation of the news to come.

"No! It's nothing like that!" Pyrrha corrected quickly, noticing her misunderstood comment. "It's about her whole outpost and why they're short on dust."

"Thank god!" Weiss muttered with a long shaky sigh. "Well, let's hear what's happening."

Pyrrha explained what Jaune had showed her on his computer, adding in the pieces she could from what she knew. "So since the final copy simply goes through his office and doesn't need his permission, there has to be someone there that is making the dust disappear. Because that's the only constant from one month to the next."

"That makes sense since Ruby told me she only gets enough dust for one clip a week. I'm going to talk to Ironwood about this." Weiss got up and Pyrrha grabbed her arm.

"Hold on. Think about what you're doing. If he's the one behind this, then you'll be walking straight into a trap." Pyrrha said, anticipating the worst.

"Then what do you want me to do? It's not like they look at my transfer application! I swear this has my father's name written all over it, but I'll be damned if I can prove it." Weiss grumbled, falling back into her bed.

"Actually, Jaune can help with that. I'll let him know to keep an eye for your transfer and make sure it's approved. He's got an eye on everything that goes on here. His set up even puts the security that works here to shame. I'm confident he'll be able to help you." Pyrrha said.

"In that case, try to get Ren back here to help you. Who knows, maybe those politicians wouldn't get on your back so much if he was there." Weiss said, a plan already forming in her head. "And if Jaune can transfer me, make sure that my first day will be the start of the week and that my leave happens at the same time as Ruby's."

"Sure. I'll let him know." Pyrrha said before getting up and walking to the door. "And don't worry. You'll see her again soon. Either Monday or the Sunday after."

"Thanks. But I should go to the gym." Weiss sighed, also getting up and grabbing her rapier from under her bed. "It wouldn't do to show up at the front line out of shape."

"Okay, but don't hurt yourself!" Pyrrha warned before heading out of the room. She smiled to herself at how Weiss's attitude had suddenly changed. Now all she had to do was make sure Jaune really could help.

* * *

"That's great! Did you see the look on his face?" Ruby laughed with Ren as the aftermath of their prank ran around in the field beside the outpost.

"I wonder if he'll start carrying his weapon to the outhouse now." Ren chuckled watching his commanding officer waving his pants at a Beowulf cub who was trying to claw at his leg as he ran in circles away from it.

"I have to ask. How did you manage to get the little one?" Ruby asked, breaking a chunk off the stale bread that passed for lunch. "Aren't they normally protected inside the den?"

"Normally." Ren responded. "I had to fight a few beowolves last week and this baby was with them. That idiot told me to kill it, but I brought it back because it was so tiny it didn't even know I wasn't its mother."

"You've had it a whole week? And you didn't tell me?" Ruby asked in shock. "I thought you would have told me if you got something cool like that!"

"Well, I was going to tell you, but after a day or so it started trying to claw at me, so I stuck it in a crate and sort of forgot." Ren said with a shrug. "It's not like they starve anyway."

"I don't know. I think he looks a bit hungry." Ruby said just as the CO's scream echoed across the field and into the camp. The tiny black monster was now holding on to the back of his leg with its teeth while he swung it around trying to make it fly free. "I guess one of us should save him before he decides this is our fault like always."

"I think I have an idea." Ren said, leaving the shadow of the building and walking out to the man.

Ruby watched as Ren stood there for a moment talking before the CO nodded while screaming swears. Ren took his weapon and used the knife to pry open the little monster's teeth, holding it at arms length. The bitten man looked angry as he put his pants back on and walked back into the compound. Ruby followed at a distance as they walked into his office, Ren still holding the black cub.

A minute later, a shot rang out and Ren exited the place without the cub, a bag of ammunition in his hand. He walked over to Ruby's new perch on a fence and sat down beside her.

"I got this for rescuing him." He dropped the large bag of shells on the ground for Ruby to poke at while he ate his lunch.

"Not much in here." Ruby commented, seeing most of the shells were ballistic.

"Take what you want. I tend to use ballistics in storm flower now anyway." Ren said. Ruby nodded and started pulling out shells she could cannibalize for propellant for her weapon.

"Oh, and I heard we're getting a few more troops after our leave." Ren commented.

"Sounds cool. At least the CO will have someone new to pick on." Ruby said.

Ren nodded with a smile, remembering the first time the CO had started yelling at Ruby who turned on her speed and disappeared in a cloud of dirt that covered his freshly washed uniform. After that, Ren became his target since he couldn't just disappear.

"I'd feel a bit bad about that though." Ren sighed. "After all, I did grow up with Nora. In comparison to her, he's much quieter."

"You miss her, huh." Ruby said, noticing the tone of Ren's voice.

"About as much as you miss Weiss." Ren confirmed with a nod. "I do talk to her every day though."

"I honestly don't think I'd have survived this past month without my scroll." Ruby agreed. "I'm really looking forward to going back to Atlas next week."

"I am too. Nora said she's getting reassigned because her CO is too slow." Ren said after finishing his last bite of bread.

"Translation: She was terrorizing the village." Ruby laughed. "She's with Yang, right?"

"Yeah. I kind of figured that Yang's been encouraging Nora and that's why they want her gone." Ren laughed as he imagined Yang's opinion of fun mixed with Nora's willpower to do everything quickly. "They really picked a bad combo for that group."

"Definitely." Ruby laughed at her own image of her sister and Nora tag teaming to cause chaos. "But I should go. I've got a patrol to do and Cranky will get mad if I'm late."

"Bye." Ren said as Ruby exploded, leaving flower petals in her wake.

Ren reached out and caught one as it fell, even as it started to slowly wilt in the desert sun.

* * *

"NORA!" A male voice yelled, making the baby Nevermores in the nearby trees take flight.

"What'd you do this time?" Yang sighed as she skipped a rock across the lake.

"Nothing!" Nora said quickly. "I just thought I'd show him what I found on my patrol today."

"What was it this time?" Yang asked, keeping her criticisms private.

"Nothing to be angry at. I found some strange animal that looked like a black little hamster!" Nora said happily. "You know, about the size of your hand, cute little red eyes-"

"And little white horns coming out of it's face?" Yang asked, skipping another rock.

"How'd you know?" Nora asked. "I didn't already tell you this, did I? I mean, I think I'd remember if I'd told you."

"No. It was just a guess." Yang sighed. She looked at the rock in her hand. There was nothing special about it. Round. Jagged edge on one side.

"You seem kind of out of it lately. Like you never laugh at anything anymore." Nora said, her voice making it sound like a question. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Yang responded automatically. She tossed the rock and watched it make a single splash a few feet out in the lake. "I'm just getting sick of this place. We're not allowed to go where we want, see who we want, or even say what we want when we text because supposedly… well I can't really go into it."

Nora didn't say anything as Yang searched around her chosen seat for another rock. When she didn't find one, she reclined on the hard ground. Nora watched Yang a few more moments before pulling out her scroll.

"Ren knows more about that kind of stuff than I do, so I bet he'll be able to help!" She started punching in his number but Yang reached over and covered the screen with her hand.

"I know you mean well, but this is something I have to do on my own." Yang sighed and closed her eyes to the fading sunlight.

Nora tried to sit down, but failed as she kept squirming with the countless fist sized rocks under her. After a solid minute of shifting and digging to get comfortable, Yang looked over to see the very tip of Nora's nose poking out of a hole in the ground.

Yang smiled at the energetic girl, though she couldn't see it. "I think it's a bit strange that we were only in our teams for just over four months, but it feels like we've been a family for years. I honestly don't know what to do anymore."

"Well, I'm here! We can go do something together!" Nora supplied enthusiastically. "Oh! I know, how about we go and get another present for the CO? You know, since he didn't seem too happy with the last one."

Yang couldn't stop a chuckle. "Well, let's go terrorize the village then."

"We're not terrorizing anything, we're getting a present remember?" Nora asked, a little confused with Yang's strange response.

"To-ma-to, to-mah-to." Yang pronounced before kicking herself to her feet. "Let's find something good before it gets too dark."

* * *

Blake frowned as she looked through the window of the high-rise. One hundred and forty floors up, not including the five floor high coliseum of a reception area. Even for her, the drop would most certainly be lethal.

The open window let a gust of air brush Blake's hair back into a wave as her bow fluttered gently against her faunus ears. She let out a sigh as she closed her eyes to enjoy the breeze.

It had been three days since she'd had a fight with Yang over some stupid thing she couldn't even remember. Sure she could find out if she looked back into her texts, but that wouldn't solve anything. Yang had been the last one to say bye, but she had definitely been the most angry. Then again, when was Yang not angry lately?

She took a deep breath in. This high up, she felt free of everything and anything that could harm her or affect her calmness. She opened her eyes to check the spelling on the message she was staring at. There were no mistakes, just as there hadn't been any mistakes the day she wrote it or the other fifty times she'd checked it since. She hit the send and closed her eyes as she gave her fate over to whatever might happen next.

After five minutes, a quiet ding told her she had a message. She looked down at the screen on her scroll. The four green bars of aura representing her teammates glowed green with small caution symbols beside them because of the extreme range. Imposed on the bars was a larger white envelope that flashed every few seconds, making the dark room light up slightly for a brief moment before being plunged back into semi-darkness.

She was so amazed that she'd gotten a reply that she couldn't help but stare at the blinking icon, her thoughts clashing into one another as her imagination gave her every possibility that could come from reading it. Slowly, she reached out her shaking finger and opened the message. Her eyes quickly glanced over it before returning to the top to read.

 _I'm glad you texted. I was thinking the same thing, and I'm sorry I've been a bitch lately. It's just been a bit stressful dealing with Nora while being essentially in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do except kill Grimm._

Blake couldn't believe that the message had come from Yang. Not once had one of their fights been resolved so quickly. She quickly typed out a new message, and sent it without even looking it over.

 _I'm sure, Blake. I just want to forget about it and go back to before. Anyway, how's the tower going?_ Yang's response read. Blake breathed a long sigh as she looked out across the city, taking in the slightly different sight from the night before on the floor below.

 _Pretty steady. They finished another floor today. I don't even know why they want me here._ Blake sighed as she clicked the send. Another breeze blew her hair around behind her while she waited for another beep to tell her she'd received another message.

She was surprised to instead hear her ring-tone start going off. She quickly hit the answer button and held her scroll up to her ear. "Hello?"

"Kitty."

Blake paused for a moment. "Um…"

"Come on. That was funny!" The female voice that belonged to her girlfriend whined.

"Sorry. It's just been a while since I've heard your voice." Blake said, ignoring her earlier joke.

"Yeah… I missed yours too." Yang responded with a muffled yawn.

Blake was silent for a moment as she fought the tears threatening to break forth. "Yang?"

"Yeah?" Yang asked in a quiet voice.

"I… can't wait to see you when you get back." Blake changed her mind part way between opening her mouth and speaking her words. She wiped at her eyes as she pushed her emotions down.

After a small pause, Yang responded. "I can't wait either. You'll still be working though, right?"

"Unfortunately…" Blake sighed.

Yang yawned again, this time she didn't try to muffle it from Blake.

"Sorry. I just had a Nora filled day." Yang said once she'd finished yawning. "She decided to give the CO a baby Boarbatusk and an Ursa ear necklace."

"Sounds interesting." Blake stifled a giggle at Yang's explanation.

"The necklace ended up dissolving and leaving a massive stain on the guy's desk. As far as I know, he's still yelling at Nora." Yang's voice sounded happy like she was smiling on the other side of the phone. "The best part is that I'm the one who thought up the necklace idea."

"Just make sure you don't get your leave revoked." Blake responded firmly, but kindly. "Otherwise I'll be very disappointed."

"Don't worry. Nora's done much worse and I seem to be the only one here able to handle her. They wouldn't want me to set her loose on the townsfolk." Yang joked.

"You sounded kind of evil there." Blake commented, chuckling at Yang's joke.

"Well, you know… idle hands…" Yang yawned yet again.

"You're obviously tired. Go to sleep. We'll talk again when you get back to Atlas." Blake said, looking over the dark city's pinpricks of light that radiated into the pitch of the night.

"Definitely. And Blake?" Yang asked quietly, obviously close to sleep.

"Yeah Yang?" Blake asked, knowing what she was about to say. For a moment, she was jealous that Ruby and Weiss were allowed to say those words to each other since their relationship was public knowledge. The moment passed and Yang responded.

"You know…" She said.

"Yeah. You too…" Blake responded, cursing that she couldn't tell Yang everything on her mind.

"Goodnight." Yang said just before she ended the call.

Blake kept her scroll held to her ear for a few minutes as she focused on the memory of Yang's voice. Slowly, she turned the device off and got up from her perch at the empty window. She scanned the empty square floor as she walked over to the staircase. She knew from experience it would be a long night before she'd see the ground up close again. But since she was able to look forward to the next week, maybe it wouldn't be as long as it had been the last night.


	18. Deceiving Appearances: Chapter 18

Weiss stepped off the transport, passing Ren just as it revved its engines and started the return to Atlas. Weiss looked around the environment, searching for anything that might indicate danger. There was nothing.

"Welcome to Echo. I'm the CO here. Rufus Laggal." He introduced himself as he quickly approached Weiss. "Here's your patrol assignment and a map of the area. Reports are due an hour after your patrol barring unforeseen circumstances."

"Sure." Weiss replied, taking the papers.

"Good. Also remember that we're short on dust, so conserve!" He said before walking away.

 _Geez. That was a warm welcome._ Weiss thought, looking after the man.

She checked her patrol and noticed she still had two hours to explore the small camp before she needed to meet some person at the east gate. She entered the barracks and noted how the housing consisted of one large open room filled with bunk beds with a makeshift room in the corner. She walked up and tried the door, but it was locked.

The next building she found was the mess hall. Inside there were about ten guys all talking quietly as she walked over to a bulletin board at the far end. As she walked, she noticed the men go quiet, watching her.

The board had a posting of all the patrols and what time they were at. She noticed a name part way down the list was crossed out. Continuing down she found her last name scribbled darkly over the name Lie. She turned as she heard footsteps approaching on the creaking old floor.

"You Lie's replacement?" He asked in a gruff voice. His eyes were narrowed sceptically as he appraised her slight form and thin weapon.

"Yes. I am Weiss Schnee. And may I ask, to whom I am speaking?" She replied politely, sensing possible trouble and placing her hand on the hilt of her weapon.

"So polite!" The man before her exclaimed to laughs from the other men in the room. "Let's say we get better acquainted over some alone time, eh?"

Weiss reacted like a bolt of lightning. She drew up a glyph directly behind the man as she drew her weapon part way out of its sheath. She used the hilt to hit the man directly in the bottom of the chest, forcing him to fall to the ground in a coughing fit as he struggled to refill his lungs with air.

Weiss replaced her weapon and let the glyph down. She looked over at the other men's shocked faces as she walked out.

"I hope you've all learned from this. Tread carefully." She spoke to the door before she opened it and walked out. She smiled to herself as she walked to the meeting point for her patrol. _I am finally allowed to do something about all the creeps_.

* * *

Half an hour later, as Weiss leaned against the side of the gate, she heard a man approach. She turned around to find the same mad she'd put on the ground approaching.

She turned her attention away again, but nonetheless kept herself alert in case he tried to pull anything.

"Schnee. Time to go." He growled as he walked past her out the gate.

 _Just great._ Weiss thought as she started to follow him. _I just have to be partnered with the guy I had a fight with._

The two hunters walked along in silence, watching the tops of the many hills turn from dead grass to dirt and finally sand as they walked further and further from the outpost.

"Ya know I was just fuckin with ya, right?" The hunter spoke after some time walking through the deserted desert.

"I apologize. I've had to deal with that type of rude behavior for far too long at my previous post." Weiss explained shortly. She didn't trust him as far as she could throw him, and considering his size, she'd be lucky to pick him up with the help of another person.

"Where were ya?" He asked, getting used to talking to the girl a bit more.

"Government." Weiss responded.

"Damn. How'd you fuck that one up?" He asked as he started to turn and walk up a hill. Weiss followed.

"I've been applying for a transfer for a month." Weiss stated. "I hated it there."

"Well, ta each his own… or her own." He shrugged. "Anyway, you're new here so I'll give ya the rundown on what's goin on. Name's Kurt by the way."

Weiss silently followed him, scanning their empty surroundings. She dismissed a slight flash of silver she saw in the distance as a mirage and continued up the hill.

"Laggal is the tight ass who runs this place. Everything goes through him and he gets pissed easy, so don't screw with him." Her partner said. "Apparently we don't get dust here often, so he rations it to a clip a week. Though he tends to keep an eye on what we use, so it really only turns out to a weekly top-off."

"Actually, I already knew about the dust." Weiss said. "That is one reason I came here."

"Really?" He asked. Weiss simply nodded when he looked back at her. "Well, not my place ta judge. Anyway, there ain't much to do here as proved by all the Grimm tryin ta take a piece outta us, so ya picked a great post if you just wanna kick back."

"Sure." Weiss said, and the two kept walking in silence.

After half an hour, she saw the outpost's walls come back into view. She did a quick scan and saw a small black thing about a mile off, moving towards them.

"Do you see that?" She asked, pointing to the dot.

"Yup. I got this. Just watch." He pulled a small collapsible shovel out of his pack and dug a small hole. He placed a device across the opening and kicked sand over it to hide it. "Come here." He walked a few paces back and sat down on the dry, cracked dirt.

"What are you doing?" Weiss asked him curiously as she stood next to him.

"Just watch." He replied.

Weiss waited, watching the small black dot slowly grow larger as it approached. Finally after five minutes of waiting, the creature was identifiable as a large Boarbatusk.

It kept at its somewhat slow pace as it came within range of the hunters. Weiss placed her hand on her weapon, watching the creature race towards them.

Just as it passed the spot where her partner had hidden the trap, he clicked a button on his wrist, causing a small arrow to impale the creature and explode, sending smoking bits everywhere. Weiss pulled up a glyph just in time to deflect the bits that would have stained her white combat outfit.

"Well, that's that." Kurt said, getting to his feet and dusting the sand off of his pants. He walked up to the trap and took it out, kicking sand into the hole. "I'll do the log. See ya tomorrow."

"Okay." Weiss replied as he walked off to the outpost, leaving her to make her own leisurely way back.

Slowly, she walked around the seemingly abandoned compound until she felt her stomach growl. She headed into the mess hall and was given a tray of horribly unclean cutlery and a plate with a whole potato and a chunk of almost unidentifiable meat. She looked around at the tables to see the one person she wanted to see more than anything sitting at a corner table facing the wall. Most of the tables in the place were abandoned, and none of the seven men there made any rude comments as Weiss passed, fearing a repeat of the afternoon's events.

Weiss stopped beside Ruby, taking in the girl's slightly longer and unkempt hair that was still dyed with the bright red tips she'd come to love.

"Is this spot taken?" She asked, her voice cracking from the oddly dry air of the mess hall part way through, making her sound much more manly.

"No." Ruby responded, placing a slice of the meat in her mouth. She didn't even turn to see who it was.

Weiss set her tray down directly beside Ruby's and sat down. Ruby finally looked over as Weiss's shoulder brushed hers. Weiss watched her carefully as Ruby's expressions changed from frustration to confusion to amazement.

"Oh my god!" The caped girl almost screamed, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. "You're here!"

"Yes." Weiss nodded before turning her attention to her food. She realized she really wasn't hungry enough to brave the mystery meat, and pushed the tray away after feeling the solid potato that was obviously uncooked. "If you're done, let's take a walk and catch up."

"Sure!" Ruby said, scooping the last of the meat up with her fork and shoving it down her throat. She left her tray where it was as she grabbed Weiss and dragged her up and out of the room.

Once they were outside, Ruby dragged Weiss around a building into the dark shadows where nobody would find them unless they were looking.

"I missed you so much." Ruby said, shaking slightly as she pressed Weiss up to the wall of the building.

"Surprise!" Weiss laughed as she wrapped her arms around her girlfriend. "I couldn't wait for your leave to start."

Ruby didn't say anything else. Instead, she let her actions speak.

Weiss felt Ruby's lips press to hers gently, causing her to smile and close her eyes as Ruby slowly led them forward. Their tongues danced as if it was just yesterday that they'd shared their last kiss. Ruby ran her hand up one of Weiss's legs, causing her to gasp. Ruby didn't break the kiss, and stood on her toes to keep at it while she rubbed the white haired girl's thigh.

Weiss gasped again, her head hitting the wall behind her as she used her hands to pull Ruby as close as possible. She looked back down at the beauty before her and the words she'd wanted to speak for seven weeks burst forth.

"I love you Ruby! And I missed you so much!" Weiss kissed Ruby this time, her hands finding their way beneath Ruby's top.

Ruby broke the kiss with a quick peck on Weiss's lips. "I love you too, Weiss."

Ruby yawned and fell back on her heels. "Do you have a place to stay tonight?"

"Is there a female barracks?" Weiss asked, remembering she'd only seen the one for the men.

"Something along those lines." Ruby said, pulling Weiss along behind her.

Weiss intertwined her fingers with Ruby's, not caring who saw them together anymore, even if it did cause trouble. Ruby led her into the same barracks she'd explored. Two people were talking from across the room, but quieted down when they noticed the pair heading to the back.

"It's okay guys." Ruby waved at them as she passed. "I wont be sleeping right away."

One of the men nodded and returned to speaking with the other man in hushed tones. Ruby pulled a small brass key out of her pocket and put it in the door.

"Welcome to my hideout." Ruby announced as she pushed the door open and led Weiss in. She closed the door and locked it after Weiss had started to look around.

"Wow… its…" Weiss couldn't find the right way to describe the room that had rusted metal walls and a simple mattress pushed into the corner of the floor.

"A hole, yeah." Ruby nodded. "But it's home."

She started taking her clothing off and folding it before placing it on a crate in the corner. Once she was in her underwear, she got onto the mattress and pulled up the blanket to get rid of the sudden chill on her skin.

"Well, your turn." Ruby laughed, watching Weiss stand there like she was in someone else's room.

"Are you sure its alright?" She asked tentatively to Ruby's amusement.

"Definitely. I would be a jerk if I sent you to sleep in the same room as those guys, and there's enough room here for us both." Ruby laughed as she watched Weiss start to repeat Ruby's actions.

Weiss felt the blood rush to her face as she felt Ruby's eyes watching her strip, taking in every small movement and detail as she slid her skirt off and folded it neatly to place it on top of Ruby's clothing. After so much time, she felt self conscious of the lack of exercise that had made her slightly softer from the weakening of her muscles. Weiss also was sure that Ruby would notice and tease her about it, but she was just happy that she could see Ruby again.

"Well, come on. Don't freeze." Ruby said, pulling the covers aside for the white haired girl.

"Okay." Weiss said, laying down beside her best friend.

Ruby looked at Weiss as their heads rested on the same pillow. She was already breathing slower as she cuddled her body up to Weiss's.

"I haven't had a good night of sleep in forever." Ruby yawned before giving Weiss a small peck on her lips.

"Neither have I." Weiss agreed in a whisper.

"Goodnight, Weiss. Love you." Ruby yawned before she closed her eyes and started to dream.

"Love you Ruby." Weiss sighed, shifting slightly to get comfortable for what she knew would be a good night of sleep.

* * *

Weiss awoke the next day wondering where she was. She was alone in a small cubicle of a room with rusted metal walls and a bed that sat directly on the floor. Slowly, she remembered the night before and smiled, wondering where Ruby'd gotten off to. She got up and put on the old clothes from the previous day. She felt her pocket vibrate slightly and pulled out her scroll.

On it was a message from Ruby saying she'd gone for her patrol and that she'd be back by lunch. Checking the time, Weiss realized it was already half past noon.

She was just reaching for the door to leave and find Ruby when the door rattled and swung open. Ruby stood there holding a tray with two bowls of mush and two dirty spoons.

"Lunch time!" She announced, walking in and kicking the crate closer to the bed. She placed the tray down and sat on the mattress, leaning against the wall.

Weiss took her spot beside her as her stomach once again started to growl along with a new stab of pain that she hadn't felt before. "Ouch…" She groaned, rubbing her side as she took a bowl from Ruby. The spoon was already soaking in the food, but Weiss figured she'd have no choice but to eat if she wanted to fix her hunger.

"It's actually better than it looks." Ruby said with a smile. "Nothing like what you had back in the government building, though."

Weiss shuddered at the thought of perfectly cooked food. "Trust me, this is probably much better."

She scooped a large spoon of mush up and put it into her mouth. It tasted like potato and carrot shredded into boiling water, but it was definitely not as bad as it looked. Her stomach growled as it received its first real food in a week, and Weiss started to shovel the mush down her throat.

Ruby watched her girlfriend eat for a few seconds before she started. She wasn't a big fan of the stew that lacked just about everything, but figured she'd at least give it a try. She managed to eat almost half of it before her stomach made her feel like it wanted to puke everything out.

Weiss, having finished her bowl, was watching Ruby as she put her bowl back on the tray. Weiss put her bowl back too before sighing contentedly.

"That was so good." She said, leaning against Ruby. "But that might've been because I haven't been eating properly lately."

"Weiss! You said everything was fine!" Ruby exclaimed, suspecting that Weiss had kept things from her.

"I was fine!" Weiss argued. "I just wasn't hungry, so I wasn't really eating…"

"That's not fine!" Ruby reprimanded Weiss, shaking a finger at her.

"Well, anyway…" Weiss dismissed the subject. _What's done is done._ "I found something out the other day. It's about the ammo that comes in here."

"Oh, well I'm sure you've heard that we only get something like five hundred pounds a month, so we have to ration it." Ruby explained. "It's not like we really need more, its just that if something bigger than an Ursa shows up, we're basically screwed."

"Well, that's not what my information says." Weiss told Ruby. "This base is supposed to get around five hundred thousand pounds a month, and since there are only fifty of us, there should be more than enough to spare."

"But there isn't." Ruby stated, her brain kicking into gear. "Which means either it gets lost in Atlas, or…"

"It disappears here." Weiss confirmed with a nod. "You know the place better than me, who do you think is stealing, and why?"

"I'm not sure, but there is an easy way to find out." Ruby answered. "Tomorrow a new shipment is being delivered. We'll keep an eye on everything to see if someone ends up stealing anything."

"Sounds good to me." Weiss responded, wrapping her arm around Ruby and giving her a quick squeeze.

"Team Ruby and Weiss is back in action!" Ruby laughed before turning to kiss Weiss. _This was going to be fun._ They both thought as they started to plan the evening.


	19. Deceiving Appearances: Chapter 19

"So… that's everything, right?" Weiss asked her partner as they sat in the room, talking in hushed tones as they planned their surveillance of the incoming shipment.

"Nope." Ruby said with a grin. When Weiss responded by tilting her head in incomprehension, Ruby laughed. "We don't have a team name, or an operation name!"

Weiss sighed. These were the parts of Ruby she had admittedly missed, though she'd never tell the girl that. "If we must name the operation, how about Dust Thief?"

"Short, descriptive, and to the point." Ruby nodded. "How about we blend our names for our team name?"

"How about you do that and I'll tell you what I think?" Weiss asked, her imagination not really capable of coming up with good names.

"Hmm… how about Reiss?" Ruby supplied, tapping her finger on her chin.

"Sounds like rice."

"So is that-?" Ruby started.

"That would be a no." Weiss replied with a smirk.

"Schnose?"

"Nose."

"Ronee?"

"What some girl calls her boyfriend."

"Wuby?"

"Baby talk." Weiss responded, saying the first thing that came to mind when Ruby blended their names.

"Well, if you think you can do better, give it a try! It's harder than you think!" Ruby huffed, frustrated at being shot down every time.

"Lets see then. Your semblance makes rose petals, and all of my glyphs start out white, so… how about… White Rose?" Weiss reasoned, trying desperately to give Ruby something, anything that was better than her original suggestions.

"Hmmm… White Rose…" Ruby thought. "Team White Rose…. Has a nice ring to it."

"So… do you like it?" Weiss asked, noticing Ruby was actually thinking of using it.

"Yeah. I think so. As of today, we are Team White Rose, half of Team RWBY!" Ruby announced, punching the air.

"Great… but the white part of the team has her patrol, so I have to go." Weiss said, double checking her rapier before she got up to leave. "Also Ruby?"

"Yeah?" Ruby asked curiously.

"Keep it between us, but I brought my own dust for emergencies." Weiss said, flipping Ruby a shell she took out of her pocket. "Stick it at the bottom of your clip. It's the explosive one."

"Thanks Weiss!" Ruby almost bowled Weiss over in a kiss that left Weiss breathless. "Now you don't want to get into trouble with Cranky, so I'd get going to the patrol."

"I have to ask… Cranky?" Weiss looked at Ruby skeptically.

"Rufus's nickname." Ruby explained. "Also, if you find a baby beowolf, bring it back. Ren showed me a neat trick."

"O-kay." Weiss rolled her eyes as she started to leave. "See you later."

"Love you!" Ruby called to the closing door.

"Love you too!" Weiss called back just before it clicked shut.

* * *

"So Kurt, who exactly does this unloading of dust when it comes in?" Weiss asked her patrol partner as they walked the exact same route they did the previous day. "I mean, is it always the same person? Or do they switch?"

"Well, don't know why ya care 'bout it, but it's always done by Laggal. Nobody ever helps, nobody wants to. Either way, it's only a few boxes, since it's only 'bout a quarter ton every month. Also Laggal's the only one with the keys ta the storage hut." Kurt responded with a shrug. "Why, ya think ya could snag some fer me if ye git any?"

"Um…" Weiss had to take a moment to decode his accent that had come out strong in his last sentence. "I don't see why not."

"Great!" He said as they got to the top of the hill that marked their start back to the outpost. "Cause if ya look over there." He pointed at what looked like a black burn spot on the ground. "Thas where all these Grimm come outta. And they're not all the tiny ones like last time. The guy I replaced a year ago was killed by one of them eighty foot Death stalkers. Not a pretty sight I heard."

Weiss felt bad as she felt her belt pouch at her waist. Inside was enough explosive ammunition to kill about one hundred of the described beasts with still a few rounds to spare. _If this has been going on for that long, then whoever is stealing dust is responsible for that a lot of death…_

A loud roaring enveloped them as a freighter sped overhead, to a spot equidistant from the outpost and the black splotch on the sand.

"Hey! You goin the wrong way, ya idgit!" Kurt yelled, waving his arms over his head, trying to get the freighter's attention. "Damn idgits do tha every month!"

Weiss watched the freighter slowly land, a silver reflection of the sun sparkled slightly from just beyond the landing craft. And Weiss finally understood the one thing they'd missed. _There's something over there._

She turned to walk back with Kurt, her mind racing. Unconsciously, she started to feel Ruby's alertness to her situation. She ignored the strange feeling that seemed to come and go. _There is no way Ruby and I have a mental link, I'm just thinking about her too much is all._

She shook the thought from her head and laughed slightly. "They seriously do that every month?"

"Definitely! Don't know how many times I reported them, but it doesn't seem to matter. And get this - the drivers the same old bloke it was before I got here." Kurt laughed at the stupidity.

"You mean this place was under-supplied before you got here?" Weiss asked, hoping against hope that she'd get a piece of good news.

"Yup. I heard it from a guy who's bin here for six years already." Kurt said. "He'll be able ta tell ya when all this started up."

"No thank you. I was just curious is all." Weiss played off her curiosity. There was no reason for Kurt to give her bad intelligence, after all. "Oh, but I trust we can pretend this conversation didn't happen?"

"What conversation?" Kurt answered. "Well, good patrol. I'm goin to the outpost ta replace that dust from yesterday, so I'll do the log again. But don't ya get used ta it!"

"I wont." Weiss replied with a smile at the hunter before he turned and walked off. Weiss knew now, that he was just an older version of her friends, and that his team had also been split across Atlas. She couldn't wait to tell Ruby what she'd figured out on this one patrol, but she knew it would have to wait at least until Team White Rose had completed its mission. And that meant she needed to find Ruby.

* * *

"Hurry up!" Ruby whispered harshly as she hung from the nearby roof that she'd almost missed even with her speed to aid her jump.

"Next time, just come with me on my glyph!" Weiss shot back as she pulled Ruby up onto the sloped roof and started heading to the next one which was thankfully flat and the roof they'd be watching from.

"Fine!" Ruby exclaimed quietly.

Weiss didn't know why they were whispering. Being on top of the roofs was bound to get them in more trouble than having a stupid conversation about nothing overheard.

They landed together on the last roof and quickly lay flat to avoid detection. As if on cue, the same transport that had flown over Weiss on her patrol landed in the empty space between buildings. Weiss and Ruby peeked over the edge of the roof to see and hear what was going on.

"Sorry, Rufus. Only two boxes for you this time." A man said from inside the freighter.

"The hell?! This is getting ridiculous! That's only one fifth of what we normally get! And that's only one thousandth of what I order to begin with!" Laggal yelled in frustration.

"Sorry, man. I just deliver the stuff. Don't shoot the delivery man." The man passed one box to Laggal who started to walk to the nearby storage shed, grumbling.

Weiss quickly looked up the model of the freighter on her scroll. She found found an easy way to disable it and pointed it out to Ruby. "We need to keep it here for a while."

Ruby nodded and disappeared in a flash of rose petals. She used the transport as cover so her path of petals wouldn't tell anyone she'd been there and quickly opened the box Weiss had shown her. She ripped out a fuse and then walked quickly away. Once she was back in the alley, Weiss joined her on the ground.

"Now what?" She asked, looking around the corner as Laggal took the last box of dust into the storage shed.

"Wait… then let me do the talking." Weiss instructed. A few minutes later, they heard the engines of the craft start to rev before an explosion sounded and the mechanics ground to a halt. Weiss walked with Ruby around the corner and ran to the back of the ship where Laggal was dusting himself off.

"What happened?" Weiss asked, looking at the freighter's smoking wing.

"Damn thing blew." Laggal said gruffly. "What are you two doing here anyway?"

"Taking a walk. That a crime?" Weiss asked, acid in her voice.

"What's your name?" He asked, clearly irritated by Weiss's tone.

"Schnee. As in the heiress to the company you get your dust from." Weiss said coolly. Ruby had to admire Weiss for her political finesse in getting a certain topic brought up.

"Well, just because you have more lien than I've ever seen, it doesn't mean that I don't have a bone to pick with you!" He threatened her, a vein Ruby had never seen before starting to pop out of his neck.

"Well pick away. Let's see if I can solve this problem of yours." Weiss challenged with a grin as she watched the man's infuriated face.

"Maybe you can tell me why I only got one hundred pounds of dust in this month's shipment!" He said, with a superior tone.

"My guess is someone is stealing it." Weiss answered without hesitation. "I also have a slight idea as to who it might be."

"Then why are you just standing there? Tell me!" Rufus almost screamed at Weiss.

"I'd rather not. Not yet, at any rate. But if you ever want to find out, you're going to arrest the pilot of that ship and let Ruby and myself search the ship for the shipment registers." Weiss said, playing her trump card.

"And if I want to look at these registers?" He asked, obviously trying to push the girls out of the plan.

"They're encrypted. And I can't really remember at the moment what the password is…" Weiss feigned thoughtfulness. "I'm sure if I were to be placed in front of the register, I'd remember the master code."

"Fine, just report your findings afterward!" He screamed as he walked up to the ship and banged on the hull.

A moment passed and the door opened. Laggal reached in and pulled the scrawny man out and onto the ground.

"You've blown your engine while you had this monstrosity parked in the middle of main street!" He screamed, all patience lost. "Fix it! And while you're doing that, those girls are going to make sure you're not holding out on me!"

Weiss winked at Ruby as she led her into the freighter.

The inside of the craft was pretty much bare-bones. Wires were visible threading through the support structure that ringed the plane every couple of feet. And large steel cables were laying in storage that were obviously used to tie down the hugely dangerous two hundred and fifty tons of cargo that was the freighter's limit.

"This way." Weiss said as she walked over to the only computer on the wall. Looking over the screen, she saw the title indicating it was where the shipment registers were stored. She looked around and found the plug that matched the small chip she'd asked Jaune for in case she needed to break into any systems. The small chip flashed red a few times before staying solid green. The screen above unlocked and she found the main file. Inside, there was only a record of the one hundred pounds being loaded.

"That's a shame." Ruby sighed, taking the information at face value.

"It is." Weiss took her scroll and called Jaune.

"What's up?" He answered sleepily.

"I need your help to find out if someone interfered with a shipping register." Weiss said quickly.

"Sure. You have the plug I gave you?" He asked as Weiss heard him shuffle some things around in the background.

"Yes. It's in already. It's staying green." She said, not knowing if it mattered.

"Great. It'll just take a second." He responded.

Ruby was looking around the rest of the aircraft while Weiss spoke. She found what looked to be a closet and opened it to explore.

"Done." Jaune said after a moment. "The loaded value was changed from five hundred thousand pounds to one hundred pounds. Also, there was one stop on the ships GPS that seems to be a mistake since it's the middle of nowhere."

"Send me the coordinates. And thanks." Weiss said.

"No problem. Goodnight." Jaune said before he hung up.

"Okay Ruby! We're done." Weiss called to the open door of the closet.

"You might want to check this out." Came Ruby's response as she stepped out of the door.

Weiss walked over and looked into the closet to find Ruby'd been going through the various containers. Inside one was a black and gray outfit that Weiss knew all too well. On top of it, was the standard red and white mask that only true members of the organization received.

"White fang…" Was all Weiss could say as she backed out of the closet.

"Hey, it's okay. I'll keep you safe." Ruby said, catching Weiss as she tripped over the large cable on the ground.

"Thanks." Weiss breathed before giving Ruby a small peck on the cheek.

The two walked out of the freighter after Weiss had taken Jaune's plug out of the computer.

"What've you found?" Laggal asked impatiently.

"Where's the guy?" Weiss asked him in return.

"Let him go for a bite at the mess hall. Now tell me what you found!" He was starting to get angry again.

Weiss glanced at Ruby and looked at her CO. "Ruby, he went east."

"Got it!" Ruby said, disappearing in a burst of flower petals.

"Where are you going?" Laggal screamed as Weiss started following the trail.

"To find the White Fang!" Weiss answered, turning her jog into a full out sprint.

* * *

Weiss arrived to find Ruby with her scythe in sniper mode atop the watchtower that stood near the east gate.

"Do you see him?" Weiss called up.

"Yeah. Do I… shoot him?" She asked Weiss hesitantly.

"No. We need to find out where he's going." Weiss answered to an audible sigh of relief from Ruby.

Her scroll beeped from Jaune's message, and she pulled up the map with the coordinates that matched what she guessed was the landing she'd witnessed with Kurt earlier.

"Tell me how far out he is when he disappears." Weiss ordered, hoping Ruby would be able to give an accurate estimate.

"Okay… There. He just disappeared approximately five miles away at five degrees South of East." Ruby reported mechanically.

Weiss quickly checked her scroll, typing in the information to bring up a dot that directly overlapped Jaune's map pointer.

"That's it." Weiss confirmed. Ruby jumped down just as their CO came up to them.

"He's not in the mess hall." He informed them.

"We know." Both girls responded. Weiss turned her scroll over so he could see it.

"He's in there, along with millions of pounds of dust." Weiss answered his questioning gaze.

"Well, what do you want to do?" He asked, looking at the two before him.

Ruby looked at Weiss for a moment before she responded with a smile.

"We're going to need to fill up on dust."


	20. Deceiving Appearances: Chapter 20

It was Friday. Weiss had spent the last two days with Ruby planning their infiltration of what they'd identified as an underground base of operations for the White Fang. Weiss looked at the one fully loaded cylinder on the table before her, not including her hidden explosive ammunition that she'd kept in her belt.

Ruby was rebuilding her scythe for the third time to make sure it was ready for heavy combat since they didn't know how much resistance they'd get once they tried to break in. Ruby caringly rubbed a large black piece of a sharpening rock across the long curved blade, making the blade fine enough to cut a dropped hair.

Kurt knocked on the open door before he walked in to see the preparing girls.

"Everything's set. It'll jus' be us three." He said, handing a bundle of cloth to Weiss.

Weiss had asked for black outfits to wear since they were trying to go in at night to find out where all the dust was being stored or used. She looked at the large shirts on top of the baggy pants and sighed. Nothing at this base was made for small girls like Ruby and herself.

"Couldn't you find anything in a small?" Weiss sighed, holding up one of the shirts. _It actually might be large enough to fit both of us in there…_

"That's the extra small." Kurt replied. "I did find something else though."

Weiss caught the item he tossed her.

"That's not a bad idea…" Ruby stated, looking up from her blade.

"What is it?" Weiss asked as she tried to read the faded and worn out label.

"Spray paint." Kurt said with a small chuckle. "Have fun."

He left Weiss to stare at the can as Ruby went back to sharpening.

"He doesn't actually expect us to spray ourselves with it, does he?" Weiss asked hesitantly.

"It's just clothing. We can always get new stuff after." Ruby said as she put her weapon away, satisfied with her maintenance.

"Fine." Weiss sighed, tossing the baggy black clothes into the corner and getting up. "But you're not spraying me when I'm wearing them."

"Awww, but I wanted to spray you." Ruby grumbled.

"Maybe next time." Weiss responded before she locked the door.

"Um… we need good ventilation…" Ruby said as Weiss started to shake the can like she'd seen in movies.

"Either we hide from all the men while we're naked, or we have good ventilation. Pick one." Weiss explained as she took off her jacket.

"Good point…" Ruby sighed and undid her cape.

* * *

Ruby looked awesome. There was no other word to describe it. Her outfit was now completely black, though it was a bit stiff. She'd taken a piece off one of the worn shirts and sewn it over her hood. She could still see through it perfectly which made it perfect for hiding her face.

"I told you not to wear the hood!" Weiss complained from across the room.

"Sorry." Ruby sighed as she put it down again. Her red streaked hair reappearing out of the pitch fabric.

"You look like the reaper." Weiss stated for the tenth time. "And don't get me wrong, it'll make the White Fang ruin their pants, but its somewhat disconcerting to see you like that."

"Awww, that's so sweet!" Ruby cooed as she zipped over to give her girlfriend a kiss.

"Ruby…" Weiss breathed as she rested her forehead against her girlfriend's. "I have a bad feeling about this…"

Ruby took a moment to consider Weiss's words. "I think… I know what you mean…" She leaned in and kissed Weiss again. "We just have to be careful. We don't know anything about the place."

A loud knock on their door announced the arrival of the third member of their team.

"Time to go. I'll wait at the east gate." He called through the door before the sound of his heavy footsteps trailed away.

Weiss looked into Ruby's eyes and she felt comforted by the fact that this time she'd be the one to keep her safe on the mission.

* * *

The large plate of cement had small silver instruments lined up around the edge. They seemed to be for radio devices but one or two were cameras. They were all pointing away at the dark spot that was the local grimm hive.

Kurt motioned for them to follow as he pointed out the trapdoor in the middle of the cement. He quickly used his blade to snap the hinges off and lift the large plate of metal away from the opening.

Ruby jumped down, her weapon at the ready before her. A moment later, her whistle indicated all was clear. Weiss jumped down the narrow shaft and stepped out of the way as Kurt landed right behind her. She followed Ruby around a corner to find her stopped at a poster.

"Well, that's convenient." Kurt laughed as he came up behind them.

"Honestly, who puts a directory and map in a secret base?" Weiss sighed to a giggle from Ruby.

"Just makes our job easier." Kurt noted. "So what've we walked into?"

"Let's see…" Ruby ran her finger down the list beside the map. "We're on the entrance floor… looks like theres a floor for experiments and another for power. The lowest two are… farms and quarters."

"What's the third one?" Kurt asked. He was keeping an eye on the doorways down the hall to make sure they wouldn't be spotted prematurely.

"Power." Weiss said. "If we knock it out, we'll be at a disadvantage because we need more light than they do."

"Not gonna knock it out." Kurt answered. "Just gonna do a bit of tampering. If ya know what I mean."

He sprinted away as Ruby continued to study the details of the map.

"Okay." Ruby turned to Weiss. "Let's go find that dust."

* * *

Weiss and Ruby were standing just outside the door to the experimentation labs. Past the small glass window was what appeared to be glowing fences that held grimm neither girl had ever seen before. Some looked scarred and oddly proportioned as if they were the dinosaur versions of modern grimm. Others were so unrecognizable that they may have been aliens from another planet if it wasn't for the typical white armour on black bodies.

A lone rabbit faunus was walking with a clipboard as he inspected the various cages and made notes occasionally. He was walking away, but Weiss and Ruby were hesitant to walk in the middle of so many grimm.

Suddenly, red lights started flashing and the scientist was running to the door at the end of the hall. Ruby glanced at Weiss who was keeping an eye on the grimm.

"Well, looks like the power is fine." Weiss said before pushing the door to the empty hall open.

Ruby took point as she led Weiss down the hall to where she'd seen the storage room labeled.

At first glance, the room seemed exactly the same as all the others. But what was inside was completely different.

The room was filled with a massive machine surrounding a small black gem the size of Ruby's thumbnail. The machine hummed quietly as the warped air around the gem was sucked into the machine above and below it. The simple sight of the crystal was enough to raise the hairs on the back of Weiss's neck.

"Okay… that looks important." Ruby said, looking carefully around before she dropped her hand from her weapon.

"What do you think this does?" Weiss asked as she walked slowly around the central pillar, trying to find anything that might've told them the contraption's purpose.

Ruby was walking around in the opposite direction. The two met with at the opposite side of the room without any new clues. Together they turned to the only remaining uninspected pieces in the room.

The pillar had nothing but blinking lights in arrays of green and blue circling the various layers of technology. Solid silver metal plating covered the whole pillar below the lights with holes at intervals from which the occasional cables of all sizes and types were running out to the machines on the perimeter of the room.

"You don't think that's _the_ crystal, do you?" Ruby asked, as she tentatively took a step closer to inspect the strange visual distortion happening inside the glass surrounding the center of the pillar.

"What do you mean?" Weiss asked, inspecting the outlets and finding one that looked similar to the one she could plug Jaune's device into.

"The one we heard about when you met my uncle." Ruby said quietly as if afraid of being overheard.

"I've seen every type of crystal ever manufactured, and I haven't seen one quite like this." Weiss replied taking the device out of her pocket and pausing. _Do I really want to ask if Jaune can figure out what this machine does?_

A clatter outside the door made Ruby snap out of her inspection and sprint to the door. It had opened a fraction when Ruby hit it at full speed, slamming it shut and locking it.

As the rose petals settled to the floor, a voice outside could be heard ordering other voices around.

"We don't have time!" Ruby said as she stepped back from the door as a loud bang echoed on the other side.

"We just need a few minutes." Weiss said as she made up her mind. "Whatever this is, it's important."

Weiss reached out and plugged the device in to the slot. Ruby watched as the device slowly slid into the tower of lights.

The same split second the device clicked into place, Weiss screamed as her body went into a powerful spasm, her right hand glued to the device. Ruby acted on instinct and tackled Weiss with her shoulder, sending the heiress to the ground.

Her screams turned to whimpers as her muscles slowed their pace to oddly timed twitches. Ruby looked back at the tower to see the device Weiss had plugged in smoking horribly as the plastic dripped to the floor. Ruby quickly jumped into medic-mode as she assessed the damage to her teammate.

Weiss was slowly calming down as her muscles came back under her control one at a time. She couldn't feel anything at all, which was either very good or very bad. When she tried to push herself into a sitting position, Ruby grabbed her in a tight hug.

"Hey, I'm okay… thanks to you." Weiss said, watching as the last of the plastic dripped onto the ground from the glowing chunk of metal that she'd plugged in.

"Okay." Ruby gulped after hearing her teammate's weak voice. "Okay. Let's see that hand."

Weiss looked down at the back of her right hand to see a dark line running around from the other side. She turned her hand over and felt every lunch from the past month work to come up her throat. Her skin was a charcoal black with the odd splotch of white that was mostly covered with the gray plastic that was still slowly spreading as gravity pulled at the molten substance.

Weiss looked up at Ruby who was equally shocked. Weiss got to her feet unsteadily and staggered towards the door. "Ruby… I think… I'm gonna…"

Weiss stopped and bent over as she threw up everything in her stomach. The partially digested mystery meat from that evening made splashing noises as it landed and spread in a puddle in front of Weiss.

Ruby was still too shocked to move as she watched. Her stomach gave an uneasy flip, but didn't attempt to push anything up. She looked away at the device that had caused Weiss's injury and felt a sudden, unexpected rage build the longer she looked at it. Before she realized what she was doing, her fist was flying directly at the glass.

Weiss spun around, noticing the sudden movement in her peripheral. "Ruby! No!" She yelled, but it was too late. Ruby's fist smashed into the glass.

What neither girl expected was the result from the hit. The tower seemed to freeze within two feet of where Ruby'd struck it. The technology took a frosty appearance and the lights blinked before shutting down while the glass frosted over and cracked as its temperature dropped rapidly.

Ruby took a step back as she watched the glass shatter and the crystal fall off it's stand as one of the legs attached to it snapped. It landed on the floor with no effect, glittering a forbidding black that was void of all light.

"Well that could be a problem." Ruby stated, looking over at the shocked girl standing beside a puddle of her own vomit.

"Yeah…" Weiss nodded, spitting into the puddle to get the last taste of vomit out of her mouth.

A loud bang sounded as the door burst open. Weiss jumped away towards Ruby just as a handful of faunus burst into the room. They charged at the two girls with swords impregnated with dust as Ruby scooped up the black crystal and put it in her pocket. Ruby spun her weapon out to full length and took a swipe at their opponents just as they met the puddle of puke. Two stopped just at the edge, Ruby's blade swiping harmlessly past their throats. The other three weren't so lucky.

One head rolled to the ground as its body collapsed in the puddle beside the other two who had slipped.

"Shit!" One yelled, scrambling up and running back to the door. "Get it off! Get it off, please! Oh God!"

He left the room as the two standing faunus jumped into action. One throwing a knife at Weiss who caught it in a glyph and sent it on a reverse course. The knife cut deep into the man's arm, but didn't slow his advance as he brought his bright red sword down at her.

Ruby was watching the other two who were wincing as they tried to work together to get past her whirlwind of scythe blade. She watched as they attacked uselessly, her blade always moving just a fraction faster than they anticipated.

Weiss was thankful she'd plugged the computer thing in with her non-dominant hand as she used her stronger left arm to force the attacking scimitar away from her. She countered just to be blocked again and again, her patience waning.

"Fuck this!" One of Ruby's assailants yelled as they threw a crystal at Ruby. Ruby moved out of the way, breaking her defense and rolling as the man's sword came down where she'd been standing a split second before.

Weiss took the temporary distraction that the change in combat had given her opponent and spun her dust chamber to the right one, leaving a dark smudge on the cylinder as the blade started glowing red. Her opponent swung his sword as Weiss met the weapon with an attack of her own.

Ruby folded her weapon as she dodged an attack and shot a round at the nearest assailant. The single round punched a large hole in his chest as his body slammed into the shattered pillar in the middle of the room and slumped to the floor.

Weiss's weapon met her attacker's with a loud clang as the mix of dust on her weapon ignored the infusion of her opponent's weapon, melting and snapping it near the hilt. Weiss followed the successful attack with a single stab to the throat that sent the faunus to the ground as he suffocated on his own blood.

Ruby spun her weapon to full length as the last attacker jumped towards her with a primal rage in his eyes. Ruby spun her scythe past him once as he flew past, landing so the two combatants were both facing different directions.

Ruby smiled grimly at Weiss as the man let out a surprised squeak before falling over with his body sliced cleanly in two.

"Come on. Let's get out of here." Weiss said, looking past the gory scene of the four dead faunus whose blood was slowly making large puddles around their inert bodies.


	21. Deceiving Appearances: Chapter 21

The couple exited the room to find the hallway already in a full scale battle. At least thirty faunus were fighting the various grimm that were now uncaged and rampaging. One particularly nasty looking grimm that resembled a King Taijitu with only one head and oozing purple where it's armor should have been roared forcing a few faunus back in terror as the monstrosity lunged at the man closest to it.

"God, I'm gonna be sick again." Weiss grumbled, grabbing Ruby's shoulder as they watched the creature chomp down again and again as it slowly managed to swallow the large man who was bleeding profusely from the fresh fang wounds.

"Our exit's that way." A voice behind them said quietly as the battle started anew, both parties unaware of the three spectators.

"Did you find anything?" Ruby asked as she turned to Kurt who was cleaning one of his ballistic wakizashi on his shirt.

"Nada." Kurt answered with a shake of his head. "Whole floor's filled with security and nowhere ta stick a generator. Probably ta catch whoever might attack before they go causin' damage."

"Sounds likely." Weiss agreed as they carefully crept closer to the fight, trying to see a way to go around.

"Let's just hope-" Ruby started just as every light in the hall went dark. For a brief moment, she thought she was seeing things, but then noticed that the battle was still going on. "Shit."

"At least them buggers got glow in the dark parts." Kurt said as he pulled his second weapon from his back. "Regroup on the other side. Go!"

He disappeared from beside Weiss who could just make out the faint pop of his weapon shooting into a target.

Ruby waited for Weiss who squeezed her hand before dropping it in favour of drawing her weapon. Weiss felt the cool metal against her palm and took a deep breath, remembering exactly how many shots of each type of dust she had left in her weapon.

 _Four red, two blue, and one green._ She armed her red dust and sent a fireball into the fray in front of her, following close behind with Ruby as faunus and grimm alike moved out of the way of the incinerating blast.

She repeated the action three more times as they passed more grimm and less fighters the farther they got to their destination.

"Duck!" Ruby yelled as a scythe-like appendage came out of the dark along the walls narrowly missing the girls as they rolled under the deadly swipe.

The two made it to the end and Weiss loaded her blue dust to seal the path once Kurt had made it.

"Ah! Fuck!" A voice cursed amid the battle cries of grimm that dominated the fray. "Take that ya little-"

His voice disappeared in a loud yell that silenced the battle for the briefest of moments before returning to the usual screams and pops of weapons firing at grimm.

"Git outta here! Run!" Kurt yelled as he spun into view of Weiss and Ruby with a glowing acid green stain dripping over his badly cut stomach.

"Kurt!" Ruby took a step forward, but Weiss held her back.

"I'll make sure nobody follows ya…" He spun, throwing his weapon into a glowing patch of blue before pulling the cable that attached it to his arm to retrieve it. "I'm done anyhow. Ya tell tight-ass back at camp ta go an' suck it!"

He rushed forward into the darkness as Ruby dropped her arm to her side. She turned to Weiss and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. She then walked up the stairs leaving Weiss to do what she knew was the best guarantee for their safety.

Weiss used all the dust she had left to make a barrier of ice in the doorway. She knew it would be able to last a week if left untouched and at the very least an hour provided it was hit with a small bomb.

She met Ruby at the top of the stairs that they had climbed down. She took off at a manageable pace, Weiss following, her hand emitting a throb that almost sent her to the ground with the intense pain radiating through her arm. She followed Ruby with bleary vision as she fought to control the pain of the burn that she knew was just beginning.

"What are you doing?" A man asked as Weiss passed through the doorway Ruby'd run into.

Weiss felt a rib break as something hard and pole-like smashed into her back sending her face first into something large that was made of metal and made an echoing bang as she bounced off it to the ground.

She lay there for a second as the world stopped spinning, blinking her eyes to see Ruby's cape just above her. Weiss pushed herself up and crawled back as the pain in her hand fought for priority over that in her chest.

Ruby was standing still, her scythe fully extended as she faced a man wearing a typical white fang mask. His appearance was different than most of the others, as he appeared to be wearing a uniform that resembled what a guy would wear to a nightclub.

"So… where do you think you're going?" He asked as he waved his odd looking weapon at Ruby. "Eh, doesn't really matter does it? I've got orders to kill you, so no hard feelings okay?"

"Nope." Ruby smiled as she twirled her scythe into a more universal combat stance.

The man shrugged and fired his weapon, sending a long sword out of it. Ruby blocked the projectile but the man had already moved in and snatched the weapon out of the air, bringing it around in a slashing motion as Ruby ducked and countered forcing him to block her sharp blade.

Weiss noticed that it was only the one enemy and that she was in what looked like an underground aircraft hangar. She stumbled as fast as her broken rib allowed into the nearest, fast looking plane. _It can't be that difficult to fly._ She thought as she landed in the pilot's chair, winding herself in the process.

She turned the chair around and sighed at the thousands of buttons in front of her. _Well shit._

* * *

Ruby spun her scythe, barely blocking attacks and countering at every opportunity. Even her semblance wasn't helping as the ever-present rose petals floated to the ground around her as she fought the well-trained warrior.

His weapon was a blade and a gun that was used as a sheath. For whatever reason, he kept on placing the blade back after every few hits and drawing it out again. Ruby noticed the dull red glow it had and took it for granted that she didn't want to get cut by it.

The man wasn't tiring at all as he gave a particularly powerful strike forcing Ruby to roll out of the way of the bullets that flew out of his gun. Ruby blindly spun her scythe just to feel it get deflected by the man's sword.

"You're not bad." He laughed as Ruby caught him off guard with a kick to the knee. "Too bad you're not a faunus. We could use a few like you."

Ruby smiled at the compliment. "Sorry to say they broke my mold." She swung her weapon in an elegant arc as she placed her last magazine in the weapon. She noticed Weiss was missing but knew she was probably off doing something smart. _She'd never just leave me._

As if on cue, a loud rumble echoed through the hangar as an old fighter plane's propellers spun into action. A loud victory cry came from the direction of the plane, distracting Ruby's opponent for a minute. It was all she needed.

Her scythe spun around at the man who noticed the movement just slightly too late. One of his legs was cleanly sliced off at the knee as he jumped to avoid the low swipe. He screamed in pain as he fell to the ground, firing his weapon at Ruby who used her speed to avoid or deflect the rounds.

The fighter plane sped past as Weiss screamed from the cockpit. "I don't know how to stop!"

Ruby laughed as she dodged another bullet and sprinted after the plane as it continued to pick up speed. She just managed to jump up to the tail as it sped out to a long curved ramp that led to a bright splotch of air. Ruby jumped into the copilot's seat beside Weiss and watched as she wiggled her legs back and forth while she used her good hand and a small glyph to steer.

"I didn't know you could fly!" Ruby laughed as she caught her breath from the mission.

"I don't." Weiss said grimly, her focus solely on keeping the plane from listing towards one of the walls.

A moment later, the plane burst out into the bright pink sky of dawn as a loud roar echoed beneath them. Weiss leveled out the plane as best she could as Ruby looked out the glass at the ground.

"Uh… We have a problem." She sighed, rubbing her hair in frustration.

"What? Is it that I barely know how to fly, and I have to land this thing?" Weiss asked, her frustration with the complex aircraft coming out in her reply.

"Well there is that." Ruby agreed. "But also there are more grimm below us than the ones that attacked Vale."

"Great! And all I have are two explosive rounds and a speed round left!" Weiss cheered sarcastically.

Ruby thought for a moment, pondering everything they could do. She finally decided on the only option left, though it was a bit of a gamble.

"What do you think would happen if that crystal I took from that pillar exploded?" Ruby asked hesitantly, knowing that whatever that crystal was, it was powerful.

"Do it. Use my speed dust so you don't miss." Weiss said, quickly tossing her weapon over to Ruby who ejected the dust.

"Wish me luck." Ruby said as she opened the door on the side of the cockpit she tossed the crystal as far as she could. She watched it almost disappear as she used Weiss's dust on her head. Her semblance kicked in, amplifying the dust's effect. She aimed her sniper out of the window, slowly adjusting to the various velocities acting on everything. She knew she had one shot left in her clip.

She took a deep breath and pulled the trigger, watching as the fiery explosion took shape at the end of the scythe and the small copper round sped away, falling and curving as she moved farther and farther away. She pulled her weapon in, but kept watching as the small grain of black flashed white in the distance.

The air itself started shaking as a circular ball of bright blue formed, growing quickly as it hit the ground and expanded, devouring everything in it's path.

"Weiss can you make this thing go faster?" Ruby asked as she watched the approaching smooth ball of energy.

"Hold on then!" Weiss replied as she slammed her elbow onto a lever. The craft shot forward, making Ruby stumble as she managed to pull herself back to her seat.

The aircraft screamed through the air, vibrating as if it might lose a wing at any moment as the ball of energy slowly gained.

"We've got two minutes unless it stops growing." Ruby estimated, looking through the window uncertainly.

"Well, it's been fun, dolt." Weiss said with a grimm laugh as she relaxed since the speed of the craft kept her from having to constantly readjust the course.

"Hey, we're not done yet Princess!" Ruby argued, watching as Weiss placed a glyph to keep everything where it was.

"Two minutes, right?" Weiss asked, looking out the window at the blindingly bright light slowly closing in. Ruby nodded in response as she walked around the cramped plane to her beautiful girlfriend.

"I wonder what we could do?" Ruby asked playfully, earning her Weiss's signature frown.

"We have two minutes to live, my hand has worse-than-third-degree burns, and I'm pretty sure I have at least one broken rib." Weiss said quickly. "So naturally, the one thing I want to spend these final two minutes doing is you!"

Ruby's mouth dropped at how direct Weiss had been and Weiss caught her in a deep kiss, pulling at the horrible smelling fabric that was covered with paint. She ripped what she couldn't undo with her one good hand, her burnt one remaining uselessly at her side as Ruby's hands pulled her face closer.

Weiss felt a deep moan build inside her as her tongue twirled around Ruby's.

The two were suddenly thrown to the ground as the electronics in front of them sparked and smoked while the entire craft bumped and shook and rattled, picking up even more speed as it sped towards the ground with the blue wall of energy still speeding towards them.

"I love you Ruby!" Weiss yelled over the increasing volume of the rattling as she struggled to get to the other side of the plane where her lover had fallen. Her hand was throbbing painfully as she scraped off countless layers of fused skin and muscle trying to crawl across the rough floor.

"I love you Weiss!" Ruby screamed back, lunging and capturing Weiss in a tight hug. "You know what?"

Weiss didn't think it mattered at this point, but what the hell, right? "What?"

"Team White Rose is the best!"

Darkness swallowed everything as soon as Ruby finished her sentence, Weiss's arms freezing where they were wrapped around Ruby.

* * *

Ozpin watched from his post at the wall of Vale. A large dome of blue grew from seemingly nowhere, expanding to the size of a small island in diameter before suddenly collapsing to a point and sending a massive shock-wave outward across the land.

People around him screamed and ran for cover as the wall shook violently with the force of the shock-wave, the dust it had kicked up burning his skin as it flew past on the current the shock-wave left. He looked down at his scroll as it flickered with static before returning to normal. Just as he was about to turn and leave his post to report the events of his shift, his scroll rang.

"You saw that, right?" A male voice said grimly from the other side.

"Yes."

"Did you see how far it went?" He asked again.

"No." Ozpin answered with a sigh. There was only one place this could be going.

"We have to do something! Ruby's out there!" He exclaimed in a slight panic.

"There is nothing to do but wait and see." Ozpin answered before hanging up.

He knew Qrow would listen to him, no matter how much he might want to do otherwise. He dialed a number in his scroll. He waited several moments as the ringing continued over and over. A voice-mail message greeted him and he hung up. His message was one that would be best not delivered via a message.

He dialed another number. This time it only took two rings.

"Hello?" A female voice answered calmly.

"It's me."

"Oh, Ozpin! How are you?" The voice suddenly took on a far more girlish tone as if intent on flirting.

"I need you to get JNPR and RWBY together." Ozpin ordered, already dreading his news that he'd have to deliver.

"Any particular place?" The voice asked curiously.

"I'll send you the details." Ozpin said as he hung up.

He looked back at where the large blue wall of energy had been minutes before. The ground was scarred black and even at this distance he could tell that it had been brutally burned into a glassy substance that reflected more light the longer it was allowed to cool.

 _Was this my fault?_

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **I'd like to thank you for reading Bloody Snow Volume 2. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing and editing it.**

 **Be sure to check back for the epic conclusion of Bloody Snow in Volume 3 coming Spring 2016!**


	22. Volume 3: Preview

**Author's Note:**

 **This is a preview of Bloody Snow: Volume 3 coming SPRING 2016.**

 **Again, thanks for reading and please enjoy!**

* * *

She kicked rubble as she walked alone through the glassed land, searching. For what exactly, she didn't know. All she knew was the instinct deep inside her told her to keep looking for _it._ She pushed over a small pile of ash with her already black boots wondering if she'd finally find something useful.

 _Just a rock._ She picked it up and tossed it with a short scream. It flew through the air in a massive arc as she continued to slowly crunch over the black crust that covered the countless miles of sand and dirt. She looked back to where she knew her partner was helping her look. She was probably at least a mile away.

A loud metallic bang echoed across the plain and Yang spun in the direction of the noise. She smiled and started laughing as she started the long trek to wherever her rock had landed. Wherever it landed, it definitely hit something that wasn't the black crust that carpeted this disaster zone.

She walked tirelessly for five minutes before finding a disturbed area of the ground. She reached down into the rock sized hole and pulled the rock she'd thrown out. She couldn't see what was below the crust so she started digging at it, tossing pieces of dirt and blackened clumps of sand out of the way. She tossed the last plate of glass out of the way and went to dig deeper in the dirt when her fist hit something hard that made a quiet echo. She quickly cleaned up the remaining dirt to find a blackened piece of metal that was heavily dented under her feet. It had the remaining ghost of burned off paint and in places was still stained gray or brown as it must have been before the explosion that had destroyed everything.

Yang jumped out of the shallow hole and hit the dial button on her scroll. After a few rings, her teammate answered.

"Call everyone. I found it." She clicked the device closed, not bothering with the smudge of ash making the call had left on her face.

She started widening the hole as she waited for the others to get to her. Whatever it was that was telling her to search, this was definitely what she'd been meant to find.

 _C'mon, Ruby. Please be there…_ She thought desperately as she pushed herself along at the tireless pace she'd set to clear the whole of whatever she'd found. Maybe, just maybe, she'd be able to find out something about what had happened to her sister.

After countless handfuls of junk were tossed anywhere but back in the hole, the remaining half of her team arrived with team JNPR in tow. Everyone was carrying a shovel and started to dig as Blake gave Yang the extra she'd brought.

"Do you think this is it?" She asked Yang. Yang was already digging away and didn't answer.

Blake shook her head slowly as she jumped down beside Yang and started to dig. This was the eighteenth 'discovery' they were digging up, and Blake honestly wished she knew what she could do for Yang to help her deal with her bottled up emotions. It was just a matter of time until something broke. The only question was exactly _what_ would break.


End file.
